
Class JE4r£H 



Book 



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-1^357 



Isiil 



MCCLELLAFS MILITARY CAREER 

i 

REVIEWED AND EXPOSED: 



THE 



MILITARY POLICY OF THE ADMINISTRATION 



SET FORTH AND VINDICATED. 



Published by the Union Congressional Committee. 



WASHIKGTOK: 

PRINTED BY LEMUEL TOWE] 
1864. 



V5~* 



.A 



y\0' 



The following Chapters are a condensation aEd revision of the series of 
twelve articles in review of McClellan's Report, by William Swintok, 
published in the New York Times, during the months of February, March. 
and April, 1864. In the p eparation of this criticism the author has to 
acknowledge the use of a large mass of unpublished official documents. 



CONTENTS: 



Pagb 

I. McClellan as a Political Strategist 3 

II. The "Young Napoleon" 4 

III. A Hundred and Fifty Thousand Men " in Buckram " 6 

IV. The Modern Fabius and his False Pretences 8 

V. "My Plan and Your Plan." 9 

"VI. McClellan's Grievance — the Detachment of McDowell's Corps 18 

VII. "A Pickaxe and a Spade, a Spade." 16 

7III. The Peninsular Campaign 18 

IX. How Pope got out of his Scrape 26 

X. Closing Scenes in McClellan's Career Sfl 



M C CLELLAN'S MILITARY CAREER 

KEVIEWED AND EXPOSED. 



MoCLELLAN AS A POLITICAL STRATEGIST. 

It is a fact singularly characteristic of General McClellan that having won what- 
ever reputation he enjoys in the field of war, he is now running on this reputation 
as the Presidential candidate of a party whose creed is peace and whose platform 
casts contumely on the very war of which their nominee had for upwards of a year 
the chief conduct. When we consider, however, that all his fame is founded on 
defeats, it is not wonderful that his hopes should still be bound up in defeats. Gen- 
eral McClellan's Presidental prospects brighten just in proportion as our soldiers 
suffer disaster, and he will only be certain of being President of our country when 
it is certain we have no country at alL 

There is no object more calculated to claim the sympathy of a generous people 
than a defeated general; and unless his'failure has been associated with circum- 
stances of personal turpitude he is pretty sure, sooner or later, to receive that sym- 
pathy. Machiavelli, that subtle observer, points out that the Romans never blamed 
their unsuccessful commanders, esteeming that to a high-minded man the mortifica- 
tion of defeat was of itself punishment enough. Sertorius, Mithridates and Wil- 
liam of Orange were habitually unsuccessful generals, and yet history has not chosen 
to cast contumely on their names : on the contrary, the memory of their failures is 
covered up by the remembrance of qualities of mind that deserved, if they could not 
command, success. * 

It has been left for Genei-al McClellan, however, to claim not merely the sympa- 
thy of his countrymen (which would have been accorded him had his conduct been 
marked by the modesty of a soldier) but their admiration and highest rewards for a 
series of exploits in which the country suffered ODly disaster. 

General McClellan's candidacy for the Presidency does not begin with the nomi- 
nation at Chicago. While his soldiers were being struck down by thousands with 
the fevers of the Chickahominy, the fever of the White House struck him. There 
are a thousand things both in his military career and in his subsequent conduct 
that can only be explained on this theory. No doubt he would have been glad to 
have founded his Presidential pretensions on success ; but as this was not possible 
he early conceived a characteristic change of base : he determined to found them on 
defeat. He could not make failures triumphs, but he would adventure a flanking 
movement in the field of politics more bold than any he ever essayed on the field 
of war : he would throw the burden of all his failures upon an Administration which 
thwarted ail his brilliant plans and ensured defeat where he had organized vic- 
tory ! This desperate enterprise he has attempted to carry though in a document 
published a few months ago, which, under the guise of a "Report," is really an 
elaborate political manifesto. 

Had General McClellan not been a prospective candidate for the Presidency, it 
would be difficult to bring his so-called " Report" into any known category. If it 
is less than a Report it is also more than a Report. It is less than a Report because 
numerous dispatches of the time are omitted from this collection. It is also more 
than gr-'strictly military Report, because its basis is e n elaborate historical, and 
argumentative recital, in which such dispatches as are .sed by General jicOleila-i 
are inlaid. Military Reports in the sense in which .1. > svLdier p.Qici-jtanii.'.he 



■\ 



term, are written either from the battlefield itself, or, in the impossibility of tha2» 
as speedily after the action as it is possible for the staff to collect the requisite data. 
There have been Generals who have seen fit at the close of their career to publish 
their dispatches in collected form. Such a legacy was left to military history by 
the grea Iron Duke. But what is peculiar in Wellington's publication of bis dis- 
patches is that he has left these memorials of his career in their strict chronologi- 
cal order, in their exact original state: he has not suppressed a line, nor added a 
word of commentary, nor a word of argument, nor a word of accusation,, nor a word 
of justification. 

Not so General MeClellan's Report. The labor of a whole twelvemonth, com- 
poeed in the leisure of retiracy, and after the publication of most of the material 
likely to bear on his fame, its purpose seems less to record a series of military trans- 
actions than to vindicate his conduct and arraign the Administration No charge' 
is too great, none too small, to draw out from him a replication : and he is equal- 
ly ready, whether to bring railing accusations against his military superiors, to 
bowl down the Committee on the Conduct of the War, or to blow up the news- 
papers. 

In this state of facts, a critical analysis of this so-called " Report " becomes a mat- 
ter which concerns the welfare of the country not less than the truth of history. It 
is to this task I propose addressing myself. It will be our duty to pierce to the his- 
torical truth underlying the veneer which General McClellan has spread over event*, 
to endeavor to seize by the guiding-clue of unpublished dispatches how much here 
set down as original motive is really afterthought, and to examine the foundation of 
the charges which he heaps upon the Administration. If I do not succeed in prov- 
ing by documentary evidence that every one of General MeClellan's failures was 
the result of his own conduct and character, — if I do not prove his career as a 
whole to have been a failure unmatched in military history, and if I do not fasten 
upon him conduct which in any other country in the world would have caused 
him to be court-martialed and dismissed the service, — I shall ask the reader to ac- 
cept his plea in abatement of judgment and accord him the patent of distinguished 
generalship. But if I make good all I have said, I shall ask the reader to charac- 
terize ia fitting terms the conduct of a man who, receiving the hearties- 1 support of 
the Government, the lavish confidence of the people, and the unstinted resources of 
the natiti.n, achieves nothing but defeat, and terminates a career of unexampled fail- 
iom by.Jttarging the blame upon an Administration whose only fault was not to have 
sooner to discovered his incapacity. 

IL 

THE "YOUNG NAPOLEON." 

It -was the good fortune of General MoClellan to come into command while the 
pnblie mind was in a peculiar mood. The disastrous upshot of a forward move- 
ment in which the nation was conscious of having used too great urgency had given 
riee to complete abnegation of all criticism on the part of the people and the press. 
Boll Run had educated us, and, in a fit of patriotic remorse, men renounced every- 
thing -hat might appear like pressure on the Government or the commanders of our 

armies. 

The nation did more : it literally threw open its arms to receive the young chief 
ehoeen to lead its foremost army. He came in with no cold suspicion, but with a 
-warm and generous welcome. It will always remain one of the most extraordinary 
phenomena of our extraordinary times that a young man without military experi- 
ence, leaping from a captaincy to the highest grade in our military hierarchy, and 
bringing with him only the prestige of a series of small operations which another 
than he planned and executed,* should have been at one received into the nation's 
eonfidence and credited in advance with every military quality and capacity. It 
may not be very flattering to our common sense to look back at the time when this 
hero of uufought fields was taken on trust as a "young Napoleon ;" but it remains, 
nevertheless, a piece of history ; and when a few weeks after assuming command, 
he told his soldiers, " We have had our last retreat, we have seen our last defeat — 
yoa stand by me and I'll stand by you," a too- confiding people applauded the bom- 
iast as having the true Napoleonic ring I 

Beyond a doubt these things showed the military juvenility of America ; but they 
were none the less the manifestations of a mood of mind which an abl- Commander 



• I mean of course General Eosecrans. The Report of that general, including hia ODerations in 
'Western Virginia, will, it U hoped, soon be published. 



could have turned to immense account General McClellan had but to ask, and it 
■was given him — indeed it came without asking. Every energy of the Government, 
and all the resources of a generous and patriotic people, were lavishly placed at hie 
disposal, to enable him to gather together an army and put it in the most complete 
state of efficiency, so that offensive movements might be resumed at the earliest 
possible moment. The time of that rifbvement was, however, with a scrupulous 
delacacy left in the hands of the Commander himself. General McClellan com- 
plains of the "vehemence with which an immediate advance upon the enemy** 
works directly in our front was urged by a patriotic people." I am very sure 
that not only was no " immediate ad vance " urged, but that no advance at all was 
expected during any portion of the period iu which General McClellan says he wae 
engaged in prganizing the army. " It was necessary," says he,* " to create a new 
army for active operations and to expedite its organization, equipment, and the ac- 
cumulation of the material of war, and to this not inconsiderable labor all my ener- 
gies for the next three months were exerted." As General McClellan assumed com- 
mand of the army in the latter part of July (27th), the " three months" spoken of 
would bring us to the 1st of November. Now it would net be difficult to show that 
duriDg no part of that period did the public show anything like " vehemence " for 
an advance. The country understood that a new army had to be organised; in- 
deed there was if anything, a disposition to exaggerate both the time required far 
this work and its inherent difficulties; and as a large share of the fame of General 
McClellan rests on the theory of his having " organized " the army, it may be worth 
while making a brief diversion to penetrate into the interior of this awful mysterj 
of organization. 

One would suppose from the tone of General McClellan that when he came to the 
Army of the Potomac there was no army to command. " I found," says he (page 
44), "no army to command — a mere collection of regiments, cowering on the banks 
of the Potomac, some perfectly raw, others dispirited by the recent defeat." Now, 
the facts of the case are that he came into command of fifty thousand men, and they 
were very far from being " a mere collection of regiments." The brigade and divi- 
sional organization existed and had existed, having been established by General 
McDowell. The organization of modern armies is a matter long ago fixed, and \e, 
not an affair which admits either of invention or of innovation. The hierarchy by 
the battalion, brigade, division, and corps, first formulated in the Ordonnance du 
Rot, is the military system of every European nation ; and our own military code La, 
in fact, a translation of it It is not clear, therefore, how there was room for the 
exercise of any such mysterious powers of organization as have been attributed to 
General McClellan, and he certainly put forth none. He found the framework of 
brigades and divisions, and he continued it, simply piling up more brigades aad 
more divisions. -j- There only remained to push the organization one step higher, 
and that step he did not take. Our regular army having always been very smaS, 
no higher unit of organization than the division had existed or had been required. 
What became absolutely necessary as soon as the needs of the war created great 
armies of one or two hundred thousand men was to establish the higher fighting 
unit — the corps d'armee — without which no large army can effectively enter upon 
an active campaign. General McClellan would never consent to the establishment of 
torps. The only novelty of organization, therefore, which it was possible for hinn 
to institute, he would not and did not. He left the army an acephalous agglomer- 
ation of thirteen divisions, without correlation, unity or cohesion; and it became 
necessary for the President, months afterwards, and in opposition to General Mc- 
Clellan, to constitute corps just as the army was on the point of setting out on an ac- 
tive campaign. 

The period of three months, during which General McClellan, according to his 
own statement, was engaged in reorganizing the army, having passed, — the Gof- 
ernment and the nation became naturally anxious that the splendid army of over 
a hundred and fifty thousand men, which had by this time grown up on the banks 
of the Potomac, should be turned to account Our foreign relatione, our domestic 
interests, our national honor — every consideration couspired to urge an attack on the 
insolent foe who held the Capital in siege. But during no period of the six montbe 
succeeding the 1st of November — and during all of which period the motives for an 

• Report, p. 6. 

t Whatever credit is claimed for the practical organization of the army belongs to Brigadier- 
General (now Major-General) Silas Casey, a painstaking tactician, who labored with tireless as- 
siduity at the task of brigading the newly arrived regiments. The assumption of the credit of tfife 
wotk by General McClellan is a flagrant instance of sic vos non vobU : 
Yl The knight slew the boar, 
The king had the glolre.' 1 



advance became progressively more and more imperative — did or would General 
McClellan consent to move his army. If there are any considerations that go to 
justify this delay, it is only fair to General McOlellan that he shall have the benefit 
of their full weight, and this subject is worth examining with some fulness, because 
there is a close logical connexion between that long inaction and all the subsequent 
ill fortune of the Army of the Potomac. 

III. 

* A HUNDRED AND FIFTY THOUSAND MEN "IN BUCKRAM." 

There is one characteristic of General McClellan which displays itself so persist- 
ently, both in his Report and in his conduct, that it must belong to the very struc- 
ture of his intellect. What I mean is a certain inequality of vision which pute 
facts out of all just relations, gives him one standard of judgment for himself and 
another for others, and leads him to a prodigious over-estimate of immediate, and a 
prodigious under-estimate of remote difficulties. "The first qualification in a general, 5 ' 
says JNapoleon, " is a cool head — that is, a head which receives just impressions, and 
estimates things and objects at their real value. Some men are so constituted as to 
see everything through a high-colored medium. Whatever knowledge, or talent, 
er courage', or other good qualities such men may possess, nature has not formed 
them for the command of armies, or the direction of great military operations." 
This key will aid us in the interpretation of that extraordinary tendency to exag- 
gerate the force of the enemy which we find him displaying at the very outset of 
his career, and which continued to grow upon him throughout its whole course. 

The first instance in which we have a distinct utterance from General McClellan 
on the point of the relative strength of his own and the enemy's force is in a lettey 
addressed by him to the Secretary of War in the latter part of October, 1861.* In 
this communication he uses the following language : 

" So much time has passed, and the winter is approaching so rapidly, that but two courses arc 
left to the Government, viz.: to go into winter quarters, or to assume the offensive with/ores 
greatly inferior in numbers to the army I regarded as desirable and necessary. 

Now, the first question is, what number he regarded as not only "desirable " but 
" necessary," in order to enable him to assume the offensive. Happily, on this point 
we have from himself precise information, for in a subsequent part of the same com- 
-munioation he gives what he ealls an " estimate of the requisite force for an advance 
movement by the Army of the Potomac." It is as as follows : 

"Column of active operations 160,000 men, 400 guns. 

Garrison of the city of Washington 85,000 " 40 " 

To guard the Potomac to Harper's Ferry 5,000 " 12 " 

To guard the Lower Potomac 8,000 " 24 " 

Garrison for Baltimore and Annapolis 10,000 " 12 " 

Total effective force required 208,000 men, 4S8 guns, 

or an aggregate, present and absent, of about 240,0U0 men, should the losses by sickness, &c, noi 
rise to a higher per eentage than at present." 

As the strength of an army, like any other means for the accomplishment of & 
eertain end, is necessarily controlled by the object to be accomplished and the re- 
sistance to be overcome, we must seek the rationale of the extraordinary estimate put 
forth by General McClellan of the military force required as an indispensable condi- 
tion precedent to any offensive operations, in his calculation of the strength of the 
army which the rebels were able to confront him withal. Fortunately on this point, 
also, we are not left in the dark, for he goes on to state that all his information 
showed that in November, 1861, " the enemy had a force on the Potomac, not less 
than 150,000 strong* well drilled and equipped, ably commanded, akd strongly e»= 
trenched." 

If it be true that at any period during the fall or winter of 1861-2, the rebels had 
"on the Potomac" an army of the strength claimed by General McClellan — an army 
of one hundred and fifty thousand men — then we must concede that his estimate of 
the army he himself needed — namely, an effecting fighting column of the same 
strength — was not excessive, and that his reiterated demands for more men, even 
at this early period, were the result of a wise appreciation of the necessities of the 
case. But if it can be shown that this rebel colossus of a hundred and fifty thou- 
sand men was a monstrous delusion, the figment of a " heat-oppressed brain," we 
shall reqi.ire to find other terms in which to characterize his conduct and his 
clamor. 

*Keport,p.>. 



Now, I think I can ehow that the rebel army on the Potomac, so far from 
being of the force of 150,000 men, was never more than one-third that number. The 
battle of Bull Run was fought on the part, of the rebels with a force of less than 
thirty thousand men. General Beauregard, in his official report, says: " The effec- 
tive force of all arms of the (Confederate) Army of the Potomac on that eventful 
morning, including the garrison of Camp Pickens, did not exceed 21,833 men, aofi 
29 guns. The Army of the Shenandoah, (Johnston's,) ready f r action in the field, 
may be set down at 6,000 men and 20 guns, and its total strength at 8,334" 

We are then to believe that the rebel army in the interval ofrjhree months, be- 
tween the end of July and the end of October, leaped from thirty thousand men fee 
a hundred and fifty thousand! Credat Judceus ! It is too monstrous to believe. It 
•would take double the time even to brigade such a herd of men. It would indeeil 
be difficult to say what the precise strength of the rebel force was during the period 
referred ,to, especially as it varied greatly, having attained a certain maximum, 
then declined by the expiration of the term of service, and then commenced to as- 
cend once more when the first conscription came into force. I do not, therefore, 
attempt to do this. I merely desire to show that the swelling figures thai 
affrighted the soul of the then head of the Army of the Potomac existed only in h» 
imagination, and to fix a maximum beyond which it is certain the rebel army dJ8 
not go. 

During the autumn of 1861, while the rebel army was still at Cent-^rville, a letter 
•written from that place fell into the hands of the military authorities. The writer, 
referring to the flutter that existed in the ranks of their army in regard to the cre- 
ation of a certain number of Major Generals, tells how the Confederate Army was 
•rganized into brigades of four divisions each, like ours, but that they only put tw» 
brigades into a division — that is, they put eight regiments or battalions instead os 
twelve, as we have. "Now," says the writer, "this makes quite a stir as to the 
appointment of the twelve Major Generals." This wo ild give them twenty-fosr 
brigades, or ninety-six regimeats. The average strength of their regiments at that 
time certainly did not exceed that of our own at the same period, 600 men ; and 
this would give them a total of 57,600 men.* 

Now, it is worthy of note that General McClellan himself, six months after the 
date'of his estimate of the rebel force "on the Potomac," at 150,000 men, gives 
another estimate made by his chief of the secret service corps on the 8th of March, 
in which the rebel troops at Manassas, Centreville, Bull R,un, Upper Ocooquan, ao3 
vicinity are put down at 80,000. Note that this was after the rebel conscription 
had gone into force and had swelled the Confederate ranks with its harvesting ; an'd 
that, notwithstanding all this, it gives a i esult less by seventy thousand than the fig- 
tire made out by General McClellan in the month of November. At one stroke the 
rebel hundred and fifty thousand in buckram had dwindled by a half! 

From all these data, I believe I am authorized in concluding that Johnston at 
no time had on the Potomac an army of over 50,000 men. And it was before this con- 
temptible force that our magnificent army of three times its strength — no, not the 
mrmy, but its commander — stood paralyzed for eight months! Such a spectacle the 
history of the world never before presented. 

Whether General McClellan ever really believed that he had in front of him as 
army of a hundred and fifty thousand men, or anything like that figure, is a poiat 
which I do nob pretend to determine. \ But certain it is that having fixed upoa 
this number, all his subsequent efforts seem to have been directed, not to the task 
•f destroying the enemy before him, but of forcing the Government to give hinva 
command which he could never have brought into action in any battle-field Vir- 



*There are those, indeed, who put the rebel force on the Potomac at an even lower figure. 1& 
Hurlbert, who at this time was within the rebel lines and had access to good sources of informs- 
*on, says in the notes to his translation of the pamphlet of the Priuce de Joinvilleon ihe Army at 
the Potomac. 

•" I have reason to believe that when the history of the present war shall come to be writtea 
fairly and in full, it will be found that General Johnston never intended to hold Manassas and Ge»- 
treville against any serious attack ; that his army at those points had suffered greatly during the 
autumn and winter of 1S61-2, and that from October to March he never Ixad an ejfbtive force »j 
more than 40,000%en under bis orders '' 

t It is possible he did, for it is astonishing the tricks which the fears and the fancies of a man 
Urns unhappily organized" will play him; and I am willing to believe that General MrClelUta 
Was Muite as much deceived as deceiving. It is possible General McClellan really believed the 
Tebels had 150 000 men on the Potomac, when they never had a third of that number just as Si 
is possible he believ d they had one hundred thousand, then two hundred thousand ' then WW 
hundred and fifty thousand men on the Peninsula, when the truth was they never had over 70,0» 
men— or as he believed they invaded Maryland with a hundred and eighty thousand men, whes 
their total force was fifty-five thousand. All this, I sny. Is possible; bat alas for the hapless ■»• 
tton whose fate was committed to the keeping of «w«A a leader 1 



8 

ginia furnishes. From this time forth begins a series of winnings and whimperings 
for troops, the most extraordinary ever put on record. " I have not the force I 
asked for;" "send me more troops," became the perpetual cry. These, with the 
occasional expression of his determination to " do the best he can" with what pitiful 
force he had, and to " share its fate," form the staple of every communication. 

Now, when General McClellan was forming this heroic resolve, will any one im- 
agine how much of a force he had ? He had asked for 240,000 men, from which to 
take a fighting column of 150,000. It is true, he was never able to get this number, 
but it is perhaps worth while determining what he did get. 

It appears from the official reports'lihat on the morning of the 27th October, the 
aggregate strength of the Army of the Potomac was 168,318 men — present for duty, 
169,452. On January 1, 1862, it was 219,707 — present for duty, 191,480. On Feb- 
ruary 1, it was 222,196 — present for duty, 193,142. Such was the pitiful bagatelle 
of a force he had under his command! He had asked for 240,000 ; he could never 
get over 222,196 ; and one can sympathize with his sense of ill treatment in con- 
sequence. 

We think, however, that we have read of brilliant campaigns and splendid victo- 
ries achieved with something less than two hundred and forty thousand men. If 
we recollect aright Napoleon made his first great Italian campaign with under forty 
thousand men ; fought Austerlitz with forty-five thousand and Marengo with thirty- 
five thousand; and we think we have heard that Wellington, in the whole Penin- 
sular war, never had over thirty thousand ; that Turenne more frequently com- 
manded ten thousand than fifty thousand ; that Marlborough won Blenheim with 
fifty six thousand, and Ramillies with sixty thousand troops; and that Frederick 
the Great conducted the Seven Years' War, against a coalition of more than half of 
Europe, with an army never exceeding a hundred thousand men. But they were 
old fogies in those days, and it was left for the " Young Napoleon," who had never 
handled ten thousand troops in his life, to require double a hundred thousand to fill 
up the measure of his swelling ambition. 

In fact, the trouble was not that General McClellan had too small a force; he had 
too large a force. He had fashioned a Frankenstein which all his power could not 
control — a sword was put iuto his hand which not only he was unable to wield, but 
which dragged him to the ground. 

IV. 

THE MODERN FABIUS AND HIS FALSE PRETENCES. 

Were it true that the army put into the hands of General McClellan, instead of 
being twice or thrice the strength of the rebel force on the Potomac, as I have 
shown, was in reality doubly outnumbered by an enemy "not less than 150,000 
strong, well drilled and equipped, ably commanded, and strongly entrenched ;" the 
fact might well give us cause before passing censure on an inactivity which, how- 
ever deplorable, would still have had much.to warrant it. But you have seen how 
this pretence has been swept away by a scrutiny of facts ; and I now proceed to 
show that the only remaining excuses he offers are equally without foundation. 
These are summed up in the following paragraph:* 

"The records of the War Department show my anxiety and efforts to assume active offensive ope- 
rations in the fall and early winter. It is oalyjust to say, however, that the unprecedented con- 
dition of the roads and Virginia soil would have delayed an advance till February, had the dis- 
cipline, organization, and equipment of the army been as complete at the close of the fail as was 
necessary, and as I desired and labored against every impediment to make them." 

The first element enumerated is the roads and the weather, the condition of which 
General McClellan tells us was " unprecedented." If there be any inference to be 
drawn from thi3 expression and its context, it is that they were " unprecedentedly" 
bad, for this reason is given in excuse for not moving. Now it is true that the con- 
dition of roads of Virginia during the fall and winter of 1861-2 was "unpreceden- 
ted," but unprecedently good — and this, happily, is not a matter in regard to which 
we are left to the unsure testimony of memory. We have cotemporary evidence 
which establishes the fact by an accumulation perfectly irrefragable. General 
Franklin, f testifying under oath to this specific point, on the 26th of December, 
1861, says: " The condition of the roads is good." General Wadsworth,^ on the 
same day says : "The roads are remarkably good — perhaps not once in twenty years 
have the roads at Christmas been in as good condition as they are now. Having had 

'Report, p. 86. 

tReport on the Cotoduot of the War, toU, p. 28. 

JIbid,p. ^6. 



9 

this long period of drg weather, the roads are very good." So General Fitz John 
Porter,* in reply to a query as to the condition of the roads, says: " As far as I 
know they are in excellent condition, excellent travelling condition." In like man- 
ner testified a score of officers ; I need not cite their evidence, but will limit my- 
self to the testimony of a rebel witness. Pollard, f in a passage, the sting of which 
is sharpened by its justice, says: "Along, lingering* Indian summer, with roads more 
hard, and skies more beautifnl, than Virginia had seen for many a year, invited the 
enemy to advance. He steadily refused the invitation to a general action. The ad- 
vance of our lines was tolerated to Munson's Hill, within a few miles of Alexandria, 
and opportunities were sought in vain by the Confederates, in heavy skirmishing, 
to engage the lines of the two armies." 

Precisely the same tendency characterizes General MeClellan's estimate of the 
comparative condition as of the comparative strength of his own and the enemy's 
army. His communications of the period referred to make frequent mention of the 
superior discipline, drill and equipment of the rebels, and the inferiority in these 
respects of his own force. Now it is difficult to conjecture on what basis General 
McClellan constantly makes this assertion of the superior fighting powers of the 
rebels, unless — with a credulity insulting to the manhood of the loyal States — the 
rebel rhodomontade on this head had been swallowed entire by him. Abstractly 
considered, they ought to have been not better soldiers but worse ; for though their 
habits of life and social training had been of a kind to make them ■ultimately very 
excellent soldiers, they were calculated to make them very inferior soldiers at the 
outset.:}: And this view of it is fortified by historical testimony; the evidence of 
all observers goes to show that previously to the organization of the permanent 
Confederate Army in April and May, 185Sjand while the provisional army was still 
in existence arid officers were elected by the men, nothing could exceed the laxity 
of discipline, the demoralization of temper, and the inferiority in arms; equipment, 
and transportation, that marked the rebel force in Virginia. If that force afterward 
became an army whose formidable valor and superb discipline we have too often 
found out to our cost, it is to be attributed in great part to the time General Mc- 
Clellan gave them for consolidation, and the prestige they gained by their victo- 
ries over him. 

But all comparison is superfluous ; what I say is that General MeClellan's claim 
that there was anything in the discipline of his army to prevent his dealing a blow 
&t the enemy before him, is a shallow makeshift that will no longer serve. If it 
had been designed to make a Prussian or an English army — a thing of pipeclay and 
pedantry, of the rattan and red tape — there might be some force in the call for 
months or for years, in which to perfect this painful and useless education. But for 
modern armies there is but one way ; it is, after the rudiments of tactics are ac- 
quired, to put the men promptly into the field and let them be made soldiers by the 
hard realities of war. It was in this way, and not by the pedantry of the martinet 
that the armies of the Thirty Years' War, of the American Revolution, and of the 
great French Revolution, were formed. In 1813 rough German levies fought almost 
before they were drilled, and at Bautzen French recruits were victorious over the 
elaborately trained machines that formed the armies of Austria, Prussia and Russia. 
Disastrous as Bull Run was in its military results, it, beyond a doubt, did more t© 
make our men soldiers than all the reviews, parades, and sham fights, with which 
General McClellan amused a country whose life and national honor were all the 
while ebbing away. 

I have now exhausted the several reasons alleged by General McClellan in excuse 
for his long delay, from August, 1861, to April, 1862. I have shown that there is 
nothing in these excuses, whether drawn from the condition of the roads and the 
season, or from the strength and discipline of our own army, or that of the rebels, 
to justify it. No, no! Not all the shallow devices which a year of afterthought 
can bring to the extenuation of military incapacity can either explain or exculpate 
that fatal delay which gave the rebels their best ally, Time ; which made the timid 
among us despair, and the proudest hang their heads with shame ; and which 
almost authorized foreign recognition of the rebellion by our seeming inability to 
put it down. 

V. 

"MY PLAN AND YOUR PLAN." 

"Whether General McClellan ever would have been ready to advance on the ene- 
my, is a problem the solution of which is known only to Omniscience ; but the spell 

♦Ibid. p. 171. 

tFirst year of the War, p. 178. 

JPrince de Joinville on the Army of the Potomac, p. 101. 



10 

was at length broken, not by the motion of McClellan, but by a word of initiative 
ottered by the President. On the 27th of January, 1862, Mr. Lincoln issued 'Gen- 
eral War Order No. 1," directing "that the 22d day of February, 1862, be the day 
for a general movement of the land and naval forces of the United States against 
tine insurgent forces.'' 

As the reason for ordering a "general movement" on the day indicated may not be 
aniversally iutelligible and has frequently been made a matter of wonderment by 
General McClellan's partisans, a word on that head will not be out of place. Shortly 
after coming into command of the Army of the Potomac, General McClellan began 
to urge that all the armies of the Union should be put under the direction of a 
"single will." In his letter of October, 1861, addressed to the Secretary of War, 
we find him urging this with the utmost emphasis, and even making it an indispen- 
sable condition of any advance by the Army of the Potomac* 

Action, on any terms, being the supreme desire of the Government, General Me- 
Olellan was, on the 1st of November, invented with the control of the armies of 
the United States as General-in Chief. Bewildering though one finds the retrospect 
of such impotence of ambition as inspired this man to take on his pigmy shoulders 
a burden which a colossus like Napoleon never attempted to bear — the task of at 
once personally directing the operation of an army of two hundred thousand men 
in an active campaign, and superintending the advance of half a dozen other ar- 
mies arrayed along a front of five or six thousand miles — it remains, nevertheless, a 
fact of history. 

Having been vested with the control of all the armies of the Republic, General 
McClellan conceived the plan of a simultaneous advance of all these forces — a plan, 
which considering that the several armies were, as I have said, distributed along 
a front of five or six thousand miles, with lines of operation running through differ- 
ent climates and varying weather, was as impossible as it was puerile. At the wave 
ef the baton of the mighty maestro the whole vast orchestra was to strike up. 
Until then, let all men hold there peace! In a word, we have here the first draft 
of that famous " anaconda" strategy, which planted a dozen different armies on as 
many lines of operation, all on the exterior circumference of the rebellion, leaving 
the rebels the enormous advantage of their interior v position and giving them ample 
time to fortify at every point. 

And it was in view of this favorite plan of General McClellan for a si?nultaneous 
advance along the whole line that the above Executive order directing a "general 
movement" on the 22d of February was issued, f 

An advance having at length been decided on, it remained to determine the line 
by which this advauce should be made, being in mind the double objective oi — lst^ 
the rebel army at Manassas, and 2d, the rebel capital, Richmond. 

It is quite certain that up to November General McOlellau held no other view of 
a forward movement than a direct advauce on the enemy before him. At what 
time and by what counsels he altered his mind in this regard are points on which 
we have no information. But a change of purpose had meantime taken place, and 
when the President, four days after the promulgation of this General Order for an 
advance, issued Special War Order No. 1, directing a flanking movement on the 
rebel position at Manassas, it immediately appeared that he and General McClellan 
had different views in regard to the line of operatious to be taken up. 

Against this proposition General McClellan set his face with a determination much 
stouter than the logic which he employed to support that determination. Having 
obtained permission to submit his objections to the plan, we find a long letter from 
him addressed to the Secretary of War, under date of February Z,\ iu which the 
question of the comparative advautages of a movement on the enemy at Manassas, 
or a transfer of his army to a base on the lower Chesapeake, is elaborately discus- 
sed. This is a problem of capital importance, and so I shall enter with sou-e ful- 
ness into the analysis of his reasoning — endeavoring not to omit a single point of 
any weight or value. 

At the outset of his discussion of a movement on the enemy at Manassas, by the ( 
rebel right flank, General McClellan makes certain admissions as to the advantages 
of such an attack, to which I call the particular attention of the 'reaper, for I 
regard them as decisive of the whole question as to the comparative advantage of 
an attack on Manassas, or a transfer of base to any point on the lower Chesapeake. 
He admits that an attack on the rebel right flank by the line of the Occoquau would 



* Export, page 67. 

t General McOlellen had promised, if made General-in-Chief, to assume the offensive before tbo 
•95th of November. I need hardly say that this promise was as little kept as all his others. 
% Report, pages 43-48. \ 



11 

*-" prevent the junction of the enemy's right with hi3 centre," affording the oppota- 
nity of destroying the former; would " remove the obstructions to the navigation 
of the Potomac ;" would " reduce the lenghth of wagon transportation,'' and would 
"strike directly at his main railway communication." 

Assuming the successful execution of this plan what would have been the result? 
Let General McClellan answer himself: 

" Assuming the success of this operation, and the defeat of the enemy as certain, the question 
at ouce arises as to the importance of the results gained. I think these results would be confined 
to the possession of the fi3ld of battle, the evacuation of the line of the upper Potomac by the ene- 
my, and the moral effect of the victory; important results, it is true, but not decisive of the war, 
nor securing the destruction of the enemy's m«in army, for he could fall back upon other positions, 
and fight as again and again, should the condition of his troops permit." 

A tactical victory in the field, the compulsory retreat of the enemy from his cher- 
ished position, the relief the blockade of the Potomac, and the " moral effect of the 
victory,'' with the losses, disasters, and demoralization that would have been inflict- 
ed on them — all of which General McClellan admits were within his grasp, by the 
movement indicated — were surely well worth the effort. Why, considering 
what a priceless boon such a result would have been at that time, the whole nation 
would have called him blessed ! But it would not have been " decisive of the war" 
— such was the wildly puerile ambition that possessed him; and in order to end the 
war, he resolved to seek a theatre where it was perfectl}* evident beforehand and 
became a sad matter of fact afterward^ that he would find all the obstacles there 
were at Manassas with none of its advantages. 

This theatre of war was some point on the lower Chesapeake bay, either TJrbana 
on the Rappahannock or Fort Monroe. The advantages of this base, according to 
Mc'Clellan's reasoning, is that "it affords the shortest possible land route to Rich- 
mond, striking directly at the heart of the enemy's power in the East," and that 
" the roads in that region are passable at all seasons of the year?' 

It is on this enormous assmnption that he bases the whole plan of campaign ! He 
proposes to embark his troops at Alexandria, go down the Chesapeake bay, and up 
the Rappahannock to TJrbana, or down to Fortress Monroe, with the view of there 
finding a passage to Richmond, where the roads would be 'passable at all seasons." 
It is hard to tell where to begin answering a statement like that. How did he know 
the roads there were " passable at all seasons? " It would certainly be natural to 
conclude, from the mere physical geography of the region, that the roads are not 
01 passable at all seasons." We have there precisely the physical conditions to 
make impassable roads — a region on the drainage and "divides" of rivers, where 
the streams, losing their force, spread out in swamps and bogs. But if, going be- 
yond theoretical considerations, General McClellan had taken the trouble to look at 
the map, he would have noticed, on the march of fifty miles from TJrbana to Rich- 
mond, the " Dragon Swamp," and half dozen other swamps, besides the Pamunky 
the Matapony, and the Chickahominy. On the Peninsula we need not say he would 
have found ; we know what he did find. It is melancholy to think that the fate of 
a campaign should be intrusted to a mind capable of such stupendous assumptions. 

The fact of the matter is, AfcClellan's mind had already broken down before the 
problem given him to solve, his courage had oozed out, and in this mood he was willing 
to look anywhere, anywhere away from the task before him. But it was not long be- 
fore he practically demonstrated that, in transferring his base from Washington to 
the lower Chesapeake, he merely shifted, but did not remove the difficulty. Caelum 
non animum mutant qvA trans mare currunt. In ruining " across the sea," indeed, 
he changed his "sky," but not the task imposed upon him. It still met him in the 
face as knotty and more knotty than before. It was with a quite prophetic con- 
sciousness' of this fact that President Lincoln, on the same day as that on which 
General McCellan's letter is dated, sent to him the following note : 

Executive Mansion, Washington, February 3, 1862. 

Mr Dear Sir: Tou and I have distinct and different plans for a movement of the Army of the 
Potomac. Yours to be done by the Chesapeake, up the Rappahannock to Urbana, and across land 
to the terminus of the railroad on the Fork river; mine to move directly to a point on the rail- 
road southwest of Manassas. 

If you will give satisfactory answers to the following questions, I shall gladly yield my plan to 
yours: 

1. Does not your plan invole a greatly larger expenditure of time and money than mine ? 

2. Wherein is a victory more certain by your plan than mine? 
8. Wherein is a victory more valuable by your plan than mine? 

In fact, would it noibe less valuable in this: that it would break no great line of the enemy's 
communication, while mine would? 
6. In case of disaster, would uot a retreat be more difficult by your plan than mine? 

Yours, truly, AbKiHAM LINCOLN. 

The sagacity of these queries is not less conspicuous than tho compendious com- 



12 

pletemess with which they cover the whole ground. They were never answtred' 
amply because they were and are unanswerable. But President Lincoln, feeling 
the weight of the maxim, that a general will do better following an inferior plan 
which is his own than a superior one which is the conception of another, and, above 
all, desirous that some move should be made, and willing to sacrifice any minor con- 
sideration to that end, allowed General McClellan to have his own way. \ 

That general and his partisans hare a great deal to say about the supposed inter- 
ference on the part of the authorities at Washington with his plans and purposes, 
and no opportunity is lost to give currency to the notion that it was the intermed- 
dling of a species of " Aulic Council " at Washington which caused those failures 
which a juster criticism is compelled to lay at the door of his own military incapa- 
city. This subterfuge will no longer serve, for the evidence of his own report, when 
carefully collated, utterly explodes this claim. It is a fact worthy of note that the 
investigations of modern German historians have conclusively proved, that the vitu- 
peration which an intense partisanship cast upon the Austrian Aulic Council, and 
which has passed into and long held a place in the acceptance of history, is itself 
utterly without foundation, and some degree of historical justice is now done a 
body which bade fair to tnjoy a maligned immortality. But it needs no nice his- 
torical criticism to show that the shallow claims of the same sort, put forth to ex- 
tenuate McClellan's blunders, are even more baseless. If the President, as the Con- 
stitutional head of the army, is blameable in any aspect of his dealings with that 
general, it is because he abnegated himself too much — surrendered too much of his 
own authority, and gave into the hands of an un'.ried man a power little short of 
the despotic. While history will recognize that the actuating motive in this was an 
unselfish atd patriotic desire to leave General McClellaD untrammeled liberty of 
action, it is questionable whether it will not at the same time condemn the Presi- 
dent's surrender of his own convictions. » 

But while General McClellan was making his preparations for the withdrawal of 
his army to Annapolis, he was saved all further trouble on this head by a movement 
on the part of the Confederates, no less startling than their retirement from their 
fortified position at Manassas and on the Potomac. 

The withdrawal of the rebels from the line of Manassas, Centreville, and the 
lower Potomac began in February, was completed on the 8th of March, and became 
known to General McClellan and the Cabinet on the following day. The action 
taken by McClellan on this event was most extraordinary. In place of sending a 
light movable column to take up a prompt pursuit of the rebels, with the view of 
harassing their rear, he waited till two days after their definite withdrawal, and then 
instituted a general movement of the whole army, not with any adequate military 
view, and with no purpose of attempting to make up with the rebels, but, as he 
says, for the purpose of giving the troops "an opportunity to gain some experience 
on the march and bivouac preparatory to the campaign" — a kind of education of 
whick, truly, they stood in great need.* 

To any commander not hopelessly wedded to a preconceived idea, the withdrawal 
of the rebels from Manassas behind the Rapidan, before a single man had been 
shipped for the new base, would have suggested the wisdom and eveu the neeessity 
of a change of plan. All the conditions under which the purpose of a transfer of 
the army to Urbana or the Peninsula was formed were changed by that event. The 
oardinal conception in making a flank movement by water was the hope which 
General McClellan entertained of being able to reach' a point on the line of retreat 
of the rebels or to reach the front of Richmond before they could* — circumstances 
ander which they would doubtless have given battle with great disadvantage. 

The move of the enemy ought to have suggested to General McClellan that, 
whatever their purpose was, it was next to certain that they would be in force to 
meet him at whatever point of the coast he might choose to land. It should have 
suggested to him that all opportunity of making an offensive manoeuvre was now 
at end, and that all he could now hope to do was to make a transfer of base. 
It suggested to him none of these things. It simply suggested to him to change 
the proposed coast expedition. To make Urbana, on the Rappahannock, after the 
rebels had retired behind that river, was out of the question, for if he might hope, 
ander cover of the navy, to effect a landing, it would certainly not be possible for 
him to debouch from his point of debarkation. Under these circumstances the line 

* The Prince de Joinville calls this movement to "Manassas and back again '• a promenade"— a 
good name for it, but the most senseless and aimless " promenade " ever conceived by a general 
in the midst of actual war The '• promenade" gave the soldiers an opportunity of seeing for 
themselves the pitiful obstacles of quaker guns and one-horte unarmed earthworks that had so 
long afrighted the soul of their general, though the experience we are sure, did not come home 
to those brave men without profound mortification and disgust,. 



13 

of the Peninsula — which he had before spoken of as one promising " less celerity 
and brilliancy of result," and only to be adopted in case "the worst came to the 
worst " — remained ; and this he immediately chose. 

But I shall show that this decision was made under circumstances that brought 
him into direct conflict with the President's most explicit orders touching the safety 
of Washington, and in palpable and most inexplicable violation of the conditions 
which the council of eorps commanders adjudged essential to any movement by the 
line of the Peninsula. I shall further show that this decision forms the initial 
point of all his subsequent disasters in that hapless campaign. 

VI. 

MoCLELLAN'S GRIEVANCE— THE DETACHMENT OF McDOWELL'S CORPS. 

While Mr. Lincoln was disposed to waive his judgment with regard to the stra- 
tegic merits of the two plans of advance on the enemy, he by no means felt at liber- 
ty to permit General McClellan to proeeed in the execution of his movement by 
water without placing him under such conditions as should remove as much as pos- 
sible the danger of an assault upon the capital by the enemy. And yet even here 
he did not undertake to decide as a military man, upon the force which might be 
necessary for the safety of Washington, but referred that question to the concurrent 
opinion of General McClellan and the four Generals in command of the four army 
corps into which the Army of the Potomac had been divided, simply stipulating 
that no change of base of the Army of the Potomac should be made without 
leaving such a force in and about Washington as should leave the Capital entirely 
secure, not merely in the opinion of General McClellan himself, but in the opinion 
also of all the four Generals in command of the four army corps constituting the 
army.* This obliged him to hold a conference with these commanders, in the 
course of which they consented to the proposed movement by the Peninsula on cer- 
tain specific conditions, to which I invite the particular attention of the reader. 
They are as follows — to wit: 

let. That the enemy's vessel Merrimac ean be neutralized. 

2d. That the means of transportation, sufficient for an immediate transfer of the force to its new 
base, can be ready at Washington and Alexandria to move down the Potomac ; and 

3. That a naval auxiliary force can be had to silence, or aid in silencing, the enemy's batteries 
en York Kiver. 

9th. That the force be left to cover "Washington shall be such as to give an entire feeling of secu- 
rity for its safety from menace. (Unanimous.) 

II. If the foregoing cannot be, the army should then be moved against the enemy, behind the 
Rappahannock, at the earliest possible moment, and the means for constructing bridges, repairing 
railroads and stocking them with materials sufficient for supplying the army, should at once be 
collected for both the Orange and Alexandria and Aquia and Bichmond Railroads. (Unanimous.) 

N. B. That with the forts on the right bank of the Potomac fully garrisoned, and those on the 
left bank occupied, a covering force, in front of the Virginia line of 25,000 men would suffice. (Keye«, 
Heintzelman and McDowell.) A total of 40,000 men lor the defence of the city would suffice 
(Sumner.) 

In the interpretation of these opinions of the corps commanders, it must neces- 
sarily be supposed that the three Generals who concurred in opinion, intended that 
all the fortifications around Washington should be " manned " or " occrpied," and 
that, over and above this, there should be a distinct unit of force capable of being 
moved, of twenty-five thousand men. As three of the Generals concurred in this 
opinion the opinion of the fourth may be thrown out of view, although it is not cer- 
tain whether his opinion was intended to apply to a movable force over and above 
the garrisons, or to include the garrisons in his estimates of forty thousand men. 

It is evident that the opinion of the three agreeing Generals was for McClellan 
the regulating opinion, with which he was bound to comply in carrying out the 
order of the President. 

Now it is remarkable that, in October, when he contemplated a forward move- 
ment, he estimated the force necessary to be left in and about Washington, at thirty- 
five thousand men ; and this, be it observed, when the proposed movement contem- 
plated the presence of the main bod^ of the army in front of the Capital, available 
in its protection and defence. If this force of thirty-five thousand men was deemed 
necessary by General McClellan, as the proper garrison of Washington, when the 
whole army was expected to be engaged in front of the Capital, much more would 
this force be necessary when the proposed movement looked to the removal of the 
main body of the army to the Peninsula, far beyond the possibility of being iuime- 

* President's General War No. 8, Report, p. 53. 



14 

diately available for the defence of Washington, should the movements of the enemy 
endanger the Capital. 

The conclusion is irresistible, therefore, that General McClellan was bound by the 
President's order to leave, as the garrison of the forts around Washington, not less 
than thirty-five thousand men; and over and above this a movable unit of force, 
or, in other words, an army of twenty five thousand men, without taking into con- 
sideration the troops necessary for the defence of Baltimore or Harper's Ferry, or 
the guards along the Potomac, both above and below Washington ; for the garri- 
sons necessary for these places were all estimated for separately in his report of 
October, 1861. 

It is plain from this statement, the verity of which is matter of official record, that 
when General McClellan received the order of the 8th of March, and had obtained 
the opinion of the four Generals, as just stated, his first duty was to comply with the 
President's order as a condition prior to issuing any order himself in furtherance of 
his plan of a campaign on the Peniusula. He should first have designated the 
troops necessary for the security of Washington, not according to his own individ- 
ual judgment, but in conformity with the opinions of the four Generals, or of the 
three which concurred in opinion. His next point of duty was to consider whether 
his remaining force, after deducting the force designated for the security of Wash- 
ington, would be such as to justify him in undertaking a campaign by his proposed 
line : and if he thought it was not, it was his plain duty to represent the case to the 
President before giving any orders, having in view his proposed campaign. 

If General McClellan had taken this course, which both candor and duty required, 
he would have been spared the painful position of being in the wrong in the con- 
flict which ensued, consequent on the necessity which his conduct had devolved 
upon the President, of making good his own orders, after General McClellan left 
Washington for the Peninsula, for it was not until after his departure that the Pres- 
ident became acquainted with the fact that, should McClellan's orders be carried 
out, his own express orders would be disobeyed : that is, Washington, or the fortifi- 
cations around it, would not be manned as required, in the opinion of the three 
Generals, nor would there be a covering army of twenty-five thousand men, as 
required by the same opinion. On the contrary, it was discovered that the amount 
of force left in and about Washington, and in front of it, at Warrenton and at other 
points, fell short of twenty thousand men, most of them being new troops, and though 
not disorganized, they were by no means organized, as was clearly set forth in offi- 
cial statements, and the force fell short numerically of that which he was required 
to leave by some forty thousand men!* 

Not, as i have said, till after General McClellan's departure did the consequence 
of his disingenuous conduct, which left the Capital of the nation in a condition 
almost to be taken by a single coup de mam, become apparent. It then became 
the President's imperative duty to take measures to secure the end which General 
McClellan had so grossly neglected, and he did so in the following order : 

Adjutant-General's Office, April 4, 1862. 
By direction of the President, General McDowell's army corps has been detached from the 
force under your immediate command, and the General is ordered to report to the Secretary 
of War. Letter by mail. 

L. THOMAS, Adjutant-General. 
General McClellan. 

If the exposition already given has the force and the truth, and the force of 
truth which I think belong to it, it will have been made apparent that it was 
General McClellan's own neglect of the command of the President, embodying 
the opinions of the Corps Commauders, that drew upon him the consequences, 
whatever they were, of the above order for the detention of McDowell's Corps — 
an order which was issued for no other reason than because General McClellan had 
failed in his duty, and thereby, in the judgment of all men, the facts being 
known, was precluded from all right of comment upon the President's order, and 
he himself must be held responsible for whatever consequences resulted from that 
order. is 

I state this simply to establish the principle in the case ; but I shall, in the 
sequel, demonstrate that the consequences of McDowell's detention were by no 
means as important as General McClellan is disposed to allege, because, of the three 
divisions of McDowell's Corps Franklin's was sent to him immediately, and McCall's 

* If General Merlellan made the full and fair report of all the transactions of this period which a 
decent respect for the truth of history demands, he would have inserted at this point the report the 
General Wadsworth, Military Governor of Washington, on the strength and condition of the force 
left lor the defence of the Capital — a document which was certainly accessible to him. It will bo 
found at p 316 (Vol. 1) of the Keport on the Conduct of the War. 



15 

in ample time to participate in the battles before Richmond; I shall demonstrate 
that, had frlcDowel's entire Corps been sent to him at the time that Franklin's di- 
vision was forwarded. General McClellan could have made no use ot it, for reasons 
which will appear at the proper time ; and I shall demonstrate that McDowell's 
force at Fredericksburgh was quite as useful to General McClellan as it would have 
been if sent to him, since its presence threatening Richmond called off an equal por- 
tion of the enemy's force, which he would otherwise have had in his front. 

Another point must here be explained, having some connection in General Mc- 
Clellan's mind, with the action of the President in the detention of McDowell's 
Corps, and it is this: There was amoug the troops in front of "Washington, consti- 
tuting a portion of the Army of the Potomac, a dvision of about eleven thousand 
men, under the command of General Blenker. Shortly before the departure of Gen- 
eral McClellan for the Peninsula, the President had a personal interview with him, 
in which he expressed his desire to send that division to what was called the Moun- 
tain Department, in Middle Virginia, with the view of enabling General Fremont to 
move a co-operating column in conjunction with the advance of the army of the 
Potomac. General McClellan was opposed to the movement of that division, but 
finally acquiesced in it. In his allusion to this interview with the President, Gen- 
eral McClellan states that the President assured him no further reduction of his 
army destined for the Peninsula should be made; and he then refers to the order 
detaining McDowell's Corps as a violation of the expressed promise made by the 
President. 

"The President," says he, "having promised, in an interview following his order of March 8L 
withdrawing Blenker's division of 10,000 men from my command, that nothing of the sort should 
be repeated — that I might rest assured that the campaign should proceed, with no further deduc- 
tions from the forc« upon which its operations had been planned, I may oonfess to having been 
shocked at this order, " etc.* 

In this "fine frenzy " there is a sad want of ingenuous statement ; for General Me- 
Clellan knew, he could not but have known, that the promise referred to must have 
been niade by the President, with the implicit understanding that his own orders 
touching the security of Washington would be carried out. The President plaeed too 
much teliance upon General McClellan's sense of duty and propriety to intimate 
a doubt as to his faithful obedience to his very pointed and written orders, looking 
to the security of the capital. Under these circumstances General McClellan had 
no right to appeal to the promise of the President, except in terms of humility for 
the attempt to practice a deception upon the high functionary who made it, whose 
relations to the Commander of the Army of the Potomac was necessarily of so con- 
fidential a character as to make the utmost candor on the part of the subordinate 
a duty of the first importance ; for it cannot be expected of the Chief Magistrate of 
a great people to watch with jealous- suspicion the chief officers in command of his 
armies, lest they should deal covertly with him in their execution of his proper or- 
ders. If an evasion of duty is an offence of the most shameful character in any 
subordinate towards his superior, utterly subversive of all discipline in an army, 
and destructive of its efficiency, much more is this a crime of the first magnitude 
in a general officer, on whose unity of action with the purposes of his superior the 
success of an army almost entirely depends. 

I now proceed to the consideration of the other condition, the fulfillment of 
which was, in the opinion of the Corps Commanders, an essential prior to any move- 
ment by the line of the Peninsula. It is the following terms, to wit: "That the 
enemy's vessel, the Merrimac, can be nutralized." On this peint the opinion oi 
the Corps Commanders was unanimous. 

It is hardly conceivable how General McClellan could disregard the warning of 
his four Generals on this point, and undertake his expedition in spite of the know- 
ledge which he must himself have had of the power of the Merrimac f It is true 
that General McClellan drew from Commodore Goldsborough a declaration that he 
eould neutralize the Merrimac. But this opinion went no further, as Genercl Mc- 
Clellan ought to have kuown, that an assurance that, with the aid of the Monitor, 
and of his other navnl vessels, he could prevent the Merrimac from leaving Eliza- 
beth River, or, at all events, prevent her passing by Fortress Monroe into Chesa- 
peake Bay. 

But in order to do this, that is, in order to "neutralize " the Merrimac, General 
McClellan must have known that the power of Commodore Goldsborough was itself 
neutralized by Ihe Merrhnac ; so that it was impossible for the navy at Fortress Mon- 

* Report p. 56. 

t The written instructions of the confederate navy department to the commanders of the 
Merrimac show that he was under orders to pass out be>ond Fortress Monroe and destroy Mc- 
Olellan's water transportation in Chesapeake .Bay. 



* 



16 

roe to give Genera^ McClellan any effectual aid, either on the James or York rivers, 
the presence of the navy, as just intimated, being necessary to watch the Merrimac. 
It is important to understand fully this state of things, because General McClellan 
complains, in his Report, of the want of assistance from the navy, when, in point of 
fact, he bad no right to count upon it, and would have had no right even if his four 
Generals had not warned him of the dangerous power of the Merrimac. The navy 
was doing all it possibly could do in covering his water line of commuuications, and 
had no force left with which to perform any other work. This he ought to have 
known and no doubt he did know it, and hence I say his complaints on this head 
are not ingenous. They are the resort and the afterthought of a defeated General, 
whose failure was due to himself; but who has sought in this so-called " Report " 
to throw the responsibility upon others. 

The result of this reasoning is, I think,. to show that not one of the conditions 
defined by the council of Corps Commanders as essentials, prior to the adoption of 
the Peninsula route, was complied with by General McClellan. He neither left 
Washington secure, nor secured the neutralization of the Merrimac, nor secured 
the co-operation of the navy. In absence of these requirements, his plain duty was 
the adoption of the other alternative agreed upon by the Corps Commanders in the 
following terms : " If the foregoing cannot be, the army should then be moved against 
the enemy behind the Rappahannock at the earliest possible moment." But this Gen- 
eral McClellan did not do. He had determined to move the army to the Peninsula, 
and in doing so, he took upon himself the responsibility of all the results that grew 
out of his disobedience of orders. 

Yet you will presently see him turning round and with incredible effrontery 
charging bad faith and the blame of his failures on those he had thus grossly de- 
ceived. And from that day to this he and his following have made the withholding 
of McDowell's corp8 his great grievance — the gravamen of all their charges against 
the Administration — the convenient pack-horse on which to place that burden of 
defeat that will bear him down to a historic infamy ! 

VII. 
"A PICKAXE AND A SPADE, A SPADE! " 

There is now, I suppose, not the shadow of a doubt that had the Army of the 
Potomac been simply allowed to walk on up the Peninsula, it would have been able 
to walk over all the force which General Magruder had to oppose it. It is now knovm 
how contemptible that force was. General Magruder's official report* of his opera- 
tions on the Peninsula shows that his whole army consisted of eleven thousand 
men ; of these, six thousand were useless to him, being placed in garrison at Glou- 
cester Point, Mulberry Island, etc. "So that it will be seen," adds he, "that the 
balanee of the line, embracing a length of thirteen miles, was defended by about 
five thousand men." What is now a matter of certainty was then a matter of 
shrewd conjecture. General Wool, whose position at Fortress Monroe gave him 
every possible information regarding the enemy, repeatedly represented to General 
McClellan how trifling the rebel force was and begged him to push on before the rebels 
should have time to concentrate. Disposing his feeble force with admirable skill, 
moving it about from point to point, and putting forth the wiles and strategems of 
war he succeeded in so frightening General McClellan that, after a single reconnoi6- 
aance, he sat down to — dig. "To my utter surprise," says General Magruder, "he 
permitted day after day to elapse without an assault. In a few days the object of 
his delay was apparent. In every direction, in front of our lines, through the in- 
tervening woods, and along the open fields, earthworks began to appear." Of simi- 
lar tenor is the conversation reported by Col. Fremantle, of the Coldstream Guards, 
who met General Magruder in Texas last sumner.f "He (Magruder) told me," he 
says, " the different dodges he had resorted to, to blind and deceive McClellan as to 
his strength ; and he spoke of the intense relief and amusement with which he at 
length saw that General, with his magnificent army, begin to break ground before 
miserable earthworks defended only by 8,000 men." 

Grimly amusiug though the retrospect of such a spectacle is, it involves 
a great deal that is much too humiliating to permit our entirely appreciating 
it. Shirking the duty of moving on the rebels at Manassas, General McClellan 
sought the Peninsula with the express view of making a "rapid and brilliant" cam- 
paign. His first measure in execution of this campaign is to sit down before the 

* Confederate Reports of Battles, page 55T. t Three Months in the Southern States. 



17 

five thousand rebels present to dispute his progress. AH that can possibly save this 
from being hereafter esteemed a bit of monstrous burlesque, is that it is vouched for 
by the irrefragable evidence of history I 

If the defensive line which the rebels had constructed across the Isthmus, from 
Yorktowu along the line of the Warwick, was really a position of the enormous 
strength claimed by General McClellan, I can only say that he should have taken 
this element into account when he determined on his plan of campaign. It is a 
lame and impotant excuse for him to put forth that he did not know the rebels had 
a fortified position on the Peninsula, that he was wholly ignorant of the nature of 
the topography, that he was not aware that the Warwick river rasi in the direction 
it does, and that he found the roads in a horrible condition. He was repeatedly 
forewarned that he would find fortifications on the Peninsula jnst as well as at Ma- 
nassas ; but with that extraordinary levity of mind that characterizes him, he in- 
sisted on seeing all rose-colored in" the distance, and, exemplifying perfectly the 
Latin saying, Omne ignotum pro magnifico, the less he knew of the nature of the 
theatre of war he was about to seek (and he after confessed it was an unknown re- 
gion to him) the more allurements it had for him. 

But without denying that the position which the rebels held across the Isthmus 
was one naturally strong, I deny utterly and altogether that that it presented 
anything which need have been any considerable obstacle to the advance of the 
overwhelming numbers of the Army of the Potomac. The line held by the rebels 
— the general line of the Warwick, which heads within a mile of Yorktown — was 
defended by a series of detached redoubts connected by rifle-pits, and it was not lees 
than thirteen miles in extent. Now, all experience proves that a line so extended 
is only formidable when the works are fully manned, and there is present, beside, 
a moveable force, capable of rapid concentration at any point the enemy may assail. 
The very length of such a line becomes its weakness ; there must be some point at 
which it can be forced; and this, once done, the works become a disadvantage, 
rather than a defence.* 

On the point of the absolute necessity devolving upon McClellan to assault the 
works at Yorktown, the moment he reached and reconnoitered them, there is, in- 
deed, no room for argument. Any one who will inspect the map will see the read- 
iness with which the line of the Warwick might have been foreed, and, this once 
done, Yorktown was turned. And this is the proper place to mention an incident 
touching the true details of which General McClellan is as reticent as he always is 
touching anything which in the smallest degree tells against himself. One of the 
division commanders occupying a point where he knew he couldjbrce the enemy's 
line, sent a portion of his command, chiefly Vermont troops, to cross a dam which 
the rebels had constructed, and assault their position. This they did, and gallant- 
ly advancing under heavy fire, actually took possession of the rebel works. But 
this was all contrary to General McClellan's favorite system of regular approaches, 
and would have proved that the President's recommendation to pierce the enemy's 
line, instead of being "simple folly," as McClellan pronounced it, was the highest 
wisdom. It must have been for this reason — for there is no other to be found — that 
the brave fellows who had been guilty of this brilliant irregularity, were left utter- 
ly without support, and were finally forced to fall back with serious loss ! I sup- 
pose there is but one man in the world who will not now admit that the " folly " 
in the siege of Yorktown rested, as it so often does, exclusively where the timidity 
belonged — and that man is General McClellan. And if it will add anything to the 
completeness of this demonstration to say that the rebels never expected to hold 
Yorktown, we have their own testimony to that effect. Mugruder rightly describes 
the impression General McClellan's conduct produced when he speaks of the "in- 
tense amusement and delight with which he at length saw that general begin to 
break ground before miserable earthworks defended by a feeble force of eight thou- 
sand rnen." 

But if the rebel force was feeble at the outset and not in condition to offer any 
serious resistance to an even moderately vigorous attack, it was quite certain that 
it would not long be allowed to remain so. The enemy, finding unexpectedly that 
they could hold the Army of the Potomac in check until a secondary defensive 
line nearer Richmond could be prepared, would have shown an inbecility which 
they have never displayed, had they not done so. The high probability that they 

* Military history presents no more formidable fortified lines than those of Mehaigne and Bou- 
ohain, and yet Marlborough forced these, thongh defended by a superior force; and if this could 
be done in the case of positions held by a superior force, what shall we say of a line held by 
five thousand against over a hundred thousand. The comparison, in fact, is as ludicrous as It 
would be to compare the one general with the other— I mean, of course, a Marlborough 
with a Mc'.'lellan. 



18 

would both reason and act in this way seems to have been duly appreciated by the 
President, who communicated this impression to General McClellan in numerous 
dispatches, of which the following of April 6th, is a sample : "You now have over 
one hundred thousand troops with you, independently of General Wool's command. 
I think vou had better break the enemy's line from Yorktown to Warwick river at 
once. They will probably use time a* advantageously you can." So again, three 
days afterward: " By delay, the enemy will relatively gain upon you; that is, he 
will gain faster by fortifications and reinforcements, than you can by reiuforcemente 
alone " Never was utterance more prophetic ; for, says General Magruder, in his 
official report: ''Through the energetic action of the (Confederate) government, re- 
inforcements began to pour in, and each hour the Army of the Peninsula grew 
stronger and stronger until anxiety passed from my mind as to the result of an attack 
upon us." With these facts, it is submitted to*the reader whether we are not justi- 
fied in connecting by the closest logical bond of antecedent and consequent this fa- 
tal delay and all the disastrous results of the campaign on the Peninsula? 

At length, after a mouth of delay, the rebels, whether ashamed of themselves at 
putting the grand Army of the Potomac to such unnecessary trouble, or because the 
position of McDowell'corps at Fredericksburg became too serious a menace to Rich- 
mond, withdrew from Yorktown as secretly as they had withdrawn from Manassas. 
General McClellan had comsumed many weeks, including the whole month of April, 
in preparing to breach the fort at Yorktown. It is impossible to say how many 
weeks more he would have gone on digging and hauling, and it is a matter of record 
that he had just sent a request that the heavy siege guns in the fortifications for the 
defence of Washington should be taken out of their works and shipped to him, when, 
at length, the day after the withdrawal of the rebels, he "discovered " they had 
gone! Coming into possession of the deserted position, he immediately asked if he 
might inscribe "Yorktown'' on his banners, and telegraphed a dispatch which he 
has forgotten to reproduce, to the effect that he would " push the enemy to the 
wall" [ deed rurllv- remii-k that this ■' will" was neyer found; and we were 
left to exclaim with Pyramus : 

" Tliou wall ! O, wall ! O, sweet and lovely wall, 
Show me thy chink to blink through with mine eyne." 

We shall prcently follow General McClellan in his subsequent movements on the 
Peninsula ; but before dismissing the consideration of the siege of Yorktown, we 
must remark, in a word, that we find ourselves unable to accord to that siege the 
admiration which General McClellan challenges for it. We are requested to admire 
the thirty or forty miles of corduroy road constructed by his army, the miles of 
trenches and rifle pits opened, and the huge batteries placed none of which, by the 
way, was ever allowed to open its fire. But we could admire the corduroy road 
more, were it not, according to General McClellan's owu statement, a mere piece of 
supererogation — the roads in that region being "passable at all seasons of the year." 
We could admire the colossal digging and delving more, could we shut out the 
ghastly vision of the thousands of lives lost by the epidemics of the region iuto 
which our army had been led and the useless servitude to which it had been con- 
demned, or push aside the spectacle of those brave fellows digging at once a double 
ditch — a grave as well as a trench. We could admire more the profiles of his bas- 
tions and his batteries, did they not irresistibly present themselves to our imagina- 
tion as huge monuments of the folly of a man who, seeking the Peninsula to exe- 
cute a strategically offensive campaign, sat down, at the first show of resistance, to 
a feeble tactical defensive. 

VIII. 
THE PENINSULAR CAMPAIGN. 

It now stands historically determined that at the time the Army of the Potomac 
landed upon- the Peninsula, the rebel cause had reached its lowest ebb The splen- 
did victories won by the Union armies in the West — armies whose ardor even the 
MeCleilan policy, while it ruled, had not been able to restrain, and which, when 
once freed from that incubus, sprang forth into glorious activity — had carried dis- 
comfiture and demoralization to the rebel ranks, terror and dismay to the whole 
popula'ion, and fearful forebodings to the souls of the guilty leaders. 

And while this was true of the rebel cause and the rebel armies generally, these 
influences were also powerfully felt by the rebel army in Virginia. It must 
be remembered that this was before the passage even of the first Conscription Act, 
and while the rebel army was suffering from the excessively defective military sys- 



19 

tem under which the "Provisional Army" was organized. Its Winter at Manas- 
sas had greatly reduced it by disease and expiration of the terra of service of the 
one year troops, and there is the best evidence to show that it effected its with- 
drawal from Manassas and Centreville in a condition of very great demoralization. 
Under these circumstances, there is hardly the shadow of a doubt that, had the 
rebels been promptly followed up after their retreat behind the Rappahannock, our 
army would have entered Richmond on the heels of a routed and dissolving mob, 
and taken possession of the Capital which the rebel leaders then expected to 
abandon. 

In this state of facts, the historian finds himself brought face to face with the 
puzzling problem of determining how it happens that, in the words of Gen. Barnard, 
(see Report of Engineer Operations,) "the date of the iniation of the campaign of 
this magnificent Army of the Potomac was the date of the resuscitation of the rebel 
cause, which seemed to grow strong pari passu with the slow progress of its 
operations?" 

What the first favoring influence was, we need be at no loss to determine. The 
unexpected delay of the whole month of April before Yorktown — the military 
strength of which was so ludicrously inadequate to have arrested the march of our 
army, that it was long before the rebels would believe the evidence of their own 
eyes that McClellan had actually called a halt — gave the rebels ample time to 
look about them, to form their plans and to set on foot their execution. The first 
fruit of this was the Conscription Law, which, let it be observed, was passed by the 
Confederate Congress at Richmond on the 16th day of April, in the midst of 
McClellan's tragicomedy of the spade before Yorktown ; and this was immediately 
followed by the re organization of the Confederate army. Moreover the bitter 
manner in which the defeats of the West "brought home to the leaders the military 
maxim that in attempting to cover everything one covers nothing, had taught 
them the policy of concentration, and they speedily began its application in Vir- 
ginia. 

" The effect of these measures was, of course, not immediate; but Gen. McClellan 
delayed long enough at various points to permit their full development. Faulty in 
strategy though the transfer of the army to the Peninsula must be considered 
— faulty as involving a necessary division of force and an enormous waste of time, 
without eliminating or diminishing any of the difficulties of the direct advance, but, 
on the contrary exaggerating them all — nevertheless, considering the low ebb to 
which the rebel fortunes had sunk, and the weak and demoralized condition of the 
rebel army in Virginia, at the initiation of the campaign on the Peninsula, we are 
warranted by the facts in saying that a vigorous advance fron Fortress Monroe 
would have brought the Union army into position to fight a battle for the posses- 
sion of Richmond, with the chances of success decidedly on our side. This might 
again have been possible, a month later, after the battle of Williamsburg. It might 
still have been possible another month later on the heels of Fair Oaks. But it was 
reserved for Gen. McClellan, by a display of timidity and indisposition to act 
amounting absolutely to disease, to weary and wear out the patience of Fortune 
till at length she ceased to present any more golden opportunities. What was pos- 
sible to us in April, was no longer possible in August, and the force which, as we 
now know, had abandoned Yorktown without plans of future action, and which was 
driven out of Williamsburg, was able three months afterwards — thanks to 
McClellan's considerate delays — to assume the offensive and throw his army pell- 
mell back in disastrous retreat on the James. 

But I anticipate. On the "discovery" of the withdrawal of the rebels on the 
morning of the 6th of May, Gen. Stoneman, with his cavalry Corps and four batte- 
ries of horse artillery, was sent in pursuit. He was followed by Hooker's Division 
of Hki.ntzelman's Corps. Subsequently the divisions of Kearney, Couch, and Casey 
(of Sumner's Corps) were sent forward. Stoneman came up with the enemy's rear- 
guard at Williamsburg, where a defensive line had been throwu up, which, how- 
ever, it i3 evident, Johnston was not minded to hold, since his whole army had 
passed beyond Williamsburg. It was therefore, simply for the purpose of securing 
the safe withdrawal of the trains that the rebel rear turned sharply on Stoneman at 
Williamsburg; and, it being found that Union infantry supports were coming up, 
Longstreet's division was actually ordered back to that point. It was between his 
command and the divisions of Sumner's and Heintzelman's corps that, on the fol- 
lowing day, the crude, ill-planned, unnecessary, but, for us, bloody encounter, which 
figures in history as the battle of Williamsburg, took place. 

Gen. McClellan, in his Report, skims this affair in a few vague touches — a fact 
that might be accounted for from the circumstances that, not having been person- 



20 

ally present at this his first battle, he could know nothing of it from his own know- 
ledge, were it not for the other circumstance, that there are on record dispatches 
revealing, on the part of Gen. McClellan, motives and moods of mind totally at 
variance with the representations of his Report. I do not affirm that the fact of 
their being extremely damaging to his military pretensions could have anothing to 
do with their omission. I simply submit to the consideration of candid minds to 
determine what is the real motive of a historical deficit otherwise so unaccount- 
able. 

Gen. McClellan does not mention, when speaking of the column he "immediate 
ly " sent in pursuit, of the enemy, that, had he been left to the motions of his own 
hesitating and cautious spirit, no column ever would had been sent in pursuit atalL 
It was only after the repeated and united solicitations of several of the commanders 
had at length succeeded in elevating his mettle up to the point of action, that the 
consented to a force being sent in pursuit, the battle of Williamsburg. 

When, too, it was sent, it was under circumstances that made the horrible confusion 
and disorder that reigned at Williamsburg perfectly inevitable. 

While Gen. McClellan bad remained behind at Yorktown, for the purpose, as 
he says, of "completing the preparations forthe departure of Gen. Franklin's and 
other troops to West Point by water" — a task which, under the circumstanoes, 
that is, considering that Gen. Franlin's Division had remained on shipboard 
ever since it arrived, for the very good reason that, spite of Gen. McClellan's 
oalls for reinforcements, he could not find room on the Peninsula to place what 
he had, and that Franklin's movement was a mere diversion and not the main 
business on hand, might surely have been entrusted to the General who was to 
command it. About noon of Monday the Prince dk Joinville and Gen. Spraguk 
went down to Yorktown, to induce Gen. McClellan to come up and take charge of 
operations which were going so badly for us. When told the condition of affairs in 
front, Gen. McClellan remarked that he had supposed "those in front could at- 
tend to that little matter." After some time, however, he started from Yorktown, 
reached the vicinity of Williamsburg, just at the close of the battle, and for the 
first time came face to face with the actual aspect of tha problem there presented. 

Now, if one looks into Gen. McCIellan's so called "Report," with a view to dis- 
cover what purpose he then and there formed in face of the state of facts at Wil- 
liamsburg, he will look in vain. But it happens that there are dispatches in exis- 
tence which do photograph Gen. McCIellan's mind at this period, and as it is my 
aim to pierce to the historical truth under! \ing the veneer which he has spread over 
these transactions, I will tax the patience of the reader so far as to follow with some 
minuteness the dissection of, one of Gen. McCIellan's unpublished telegrams. 

Whan, toward nightfall, Gen. McClellan arrived before Williamsburg, the enemy 
still held his position there. The troops in the front had been fighting within 
hearing of McClellan during the entire day, but not within his personal supervision, 
and he was, for the most part, ignorant of the true state of affairs. He thought 
that the enemy had a securely intrenched position at Williamsburg, and had thus 
opposed his further advance at that time and he determined to lose time befort 
Williamsburg, just as he had done at Yorktown, This is sufficiently apparent from 
the following telegram of May 5, which, notwithstanding its great historical impor- 
tance, Gen. McClellan has not seen fit to re-produce: 

Bivouac in Fbont of Williamsburgs, I 
May 5—10 P. M. ) 
After arranging for movement up York river, I was urgently sent for here. I find Joe Johnston 
in"front of me in strong force — probably greater, a good deal, than my oxen, and very strongly 
intrenched. Hancock has taken two redoubts, and repulsed Karly's brigade by a real charge of the 
bayonet, taking 1 colonel and 150 prisoners, killing at least two colonels and as many lieuteuant- 
colonels, and many privates. His conduct was brilliaut in the extreme I do not know our exact 
loss, but fear Hooker has lost considerably on our lelt. I learn from prisoners that they intend 
disputing every s'ep to Richmond I shall mm the risk of at least holding them in check Jiere, 
while J resume thte original plan. My entireforce is, undoubtedly, considerably inferior to that 
of the rebehs, who still fight well ; but I will do all lean with the force at my disposdi. 

G. B. MoCLELLAN. 
Major General Commanding. 
Hon. Edwin M. Stanton, Secretary of War. 

This telegram certainly contains some very extraordinary features, remarkably 
illustrative of the peculiar genius of General McClellan. 

He had been "urgently sent for" as if heavy firing in his front during the day 
had not been urgently calling him forward from the moment he heard it, without 
waiting for a summons by special messengers. 

Hancock had made a "real charge with the bayonet," as if to charge the enemy 
with the bayonet was something surprising to the last degree, and not to be looked 
for from any portion of his army. 



21 

He " fears that Hooker has lost considerably," because he knew, but knew very 
little more, that Hooker had been under heavy fire during several hours of the day, 
while he was superintending the movement of Franklin's division (of McDowell's 
corps) up York river. , 

Having found his advance checked at Williamsburg, he very gravely informs the 
Secretary of War that he " will run the risk of at least holding them in check," while 
what? Why, being checked himself, he will run the risk of holding the enemy in 
check "while he resumes his original plan" — an indefinite expression, which may 
refer to either of two plans, that of turning Gloucester, or that of employing regu- 
lar siege operations, such as he had employed before Yorktown.* 

His entire force he represents as " undoubtedly considerably inferior to that of 
the rebels— a second allusion in the same telegram to an opinion which all the cir- 
cumstances, even at the time, showed to be unfounded, the enemy having just then 
Erecipitately fled from Yorktown. and having been driven immediately afterward 
y " a real charge with the bayonet" — certainly no signs of superiority on their 
part. 

He says that the enemy "still fight well, although the fighting at Williamsburgh, 
that very day, was the first that his army had seriously encountered since General 
McClellan had been in command of it. 

And, finally, he concludes the telegram by an evident allusion to the McDowell 
subject of complaint, assuring the Secretary of War that he " will do all he can with 
the force at his disposal" — language indicating very great, if not extreme, despond- 
ency, fearfully foreboding the disasters of a campaign just commenced. 

This telegram was written at 10 o'clock on the evening of the 5th of May, in 
which we see, as just intimated, that General McClellan speaks of holding the enemy 
in check at Williamsburgh ; while, in fact, the enemy, as he then thought, had not 
only checked his advance, but was in position behind "strong intrenchments," as he 
calls them, to hold him in check ; and he deliberately reports his purpose of resum- 
ing his original plan, the execution of which would have required time, instead of 
breaking through the enemy's lines. 

But what was the true state of the case? This may be seen by the telegram 
of the next morning, dated at Williamsburgh, and addressed to the Secretary of 
War. 

Headquarters Army or Potomac, I 
Williamsburg, Va , May 6. J 
I have the pleasure to announce the occupation of this place as the result of the hard-fought ac- 
tion of yesterday . The effect of Hancock's brilliant engagement yesterday afternoon was to turn th« 
left of their liue of works He was strongly reinforced, and the enemy abandoned the entire posi- 
tion during the night, leaving all his sick, and wounded in our hands The victory is complete. 
* * * Am I aut/iorized to follow the example of other generals, and direct the names 

of battles to be placed on the colors of regiments 1 We have other battles to fight before reaching 
Richmond. 

Q, B. McOLELLAN, 
Major General Commanding, 

At ten o'clock during the Dight of the 5th of May, General McClellan formally re- 
ports that he will hold the enemy in check, when, in fact, his real opinion was that 
the enemy held him in check ; and he quite distinctly declares his purpose of resort- 
ing to measures requiring time to obtain possession of Williamsburgh, when at the 
moment of writing that dispatch General Hancock, by acting in the spirit of the 
President's recommendation to break the enemy's lines, but without specific instruc- 
tions from General McClellan, had turned their position, and had actually com- 
passed what General McClellan despaired of accomplishing, except by slow opera- 
tions. On the morning of the 6th of May General McClellan, passing suddenly from 
a state of extreme despondency, reports exultingly that the victory of the 5th of 
May " is complete." 

In the state of despondency he exaggerates the strength of the enemy, plainly an 
excuse for his delay before Yorktown, and sets it down as " considerably greater 
than his own ;" but says he will do all he can with the force at his disposal — when 
the # facts show that the enemy abandoned Yorktown without waiting for an attack, 
and were driven out of Williamsburgh by a brilliaut assault made by troops acting 
under'an inspiration, which General McClellan's extreme " caution" could not alto- 
gether restrain. 

It is by precisely such manipulation as this — that is, by constantly putting as 

♦And here it may be observed, that while he was employed before Yorktown, the enemy con- 
structed his line of defence six or eight miles in the rear, where General McClellan proposed to 
consume more time, giving the enemy leisure for the construction of another line still further in the 
rear, as if he intended to aid the enemy in disputing " every step to Richmond ;" the purpose of 
the enemy, according to information received from " prisoners.'' 



22 

origiaal motives what were really afterthoughts, and by an adroit use of the sup- 
pressio veri — that General McOleilan endeavors to give a false coloring to actions 
and events. But unfortunately for the success of this operation, there are too many 
" damned spots" that will not " out" for all his «vashiug. 

Of these there is now another that must be set forth. 

"When General McClellan, after the battle of Williamsburgh took up his march by 
the line of the York river, and thence along the l'ailroad to the Chickahominy, in- 
stead of striking across obliquely to the James, and using that river as his line of 
supplies — a course rendered possible by the destruction of the Merrimac — we are, 
according to his Report, to believe that it was with extreme reluctance that he 
adopted this plan, to which he attempts to make it appear that he was reduced by 
the intermeddling of the authorities at Washington. 

In response to General McClellan's constant calls for reinforcements it was deter- 
mined that McDowell's corps, at Frederickeburgh, should move overland to make a 
junction either north or south of the Pamunkey, with the right of the Army of the 
Potomac, and co operate in the reduction of Richmond. 

Informed of this determination by a dispatch from the Secretary of War, under 
date of May 18, General McClellan goes off in a fit of well simulated rage, and de- 
clare^ that this determination, and the necessity it imposed of taking the line of the 
York river, destroyed all his plans. "This orderj" he says, "rendered it impossible 
for me to use the James river as a line of operations, and forced me to establish our 
depots on the Pamunkey and to approach Richmond from the north. * 

* The land movement obliged me to expose my right in order to secure the junc- 
tion ; and as the order for General McDowell's march was soon countermanded, I 
incurred great risk, of which the enemy finally took advantage and frustrated the 
plan of campaign." 

Now, is General McClellan so short of memory, or is he purposely guilty of so 
shameless an inconsistency, that he dares to make such an assertion as this, when 
he is himself on record, under solemn oath, in a sense directly the reverse ? 

In his testimony before the Committee on the Conduct of the War, General Mc- 
Clellan in reply to the specific questions — " Could not the advance on Richmond 
from Williamsburgh have been made with, better prospect of success by the James 
river than by the route pursued, and what were the reasons for taking the route adop- 
ted?" — stated as folio W8 : v 

"I do not think that the navy at that time was in a condition to make the line of the James 
river perfectly.-secnre for our supplies. The line of the Pamunkey offered- (/fewer adramages in 
that re-pect. .The place was in a better position to effect a junction with any troops thai 'might 
move from Washington on the Fredericksburgh line,. J remember that the ilea of moving on 
the James rirer teas seriously discussed at that time. But the conclusion was arrived at that, 
wider the circumstances then existing, the ruute actually followed was the best." 

I leave to others the task of harmonizing these " points of mighty opposites," 
and of determining which is original motive and which afterthought. If. they can- 
not be harmonized, I leave the reader to stamp with its fitting characterization 
this assertion of General McClellan's. 

But the truth of history requires me to go farther, and to point out that it was not 
at Williamsburgh but at Roper's church, where the army was, ten days previously, 
that it was necessary to decide whether he would there cross the Chickahominy 
(undefended) and approach the James river, (then open to us by the destruction of 
the Merrimac,) or continue on the Williamsburgh road toward Richmond. The de 
oision was made then and there, and the decision was to move by the York and 
Pamunkey. So that so far from its being true, as claimed by General McClellan — 
that the dispatch of the Secretary of War " ordering" him to connect by land with 
McDowell, obliged him to renounce a route by which, as he would now lt^ad us to 
believe, he could have taken Richmond, the truth is that the choice of route was 
voluntarily made by General McClellan te?i days before this order he quotes was given; 
and yet he has in his report the astounding assurance to complain of the order in 
question as subjecting him to "great risks," of which the enemy finally " took ad- 
vantage" and "frustrated "the plan of campaign!" * 

What the enerriy took advantage of — and what he would have been a fool had he 
not taken advantage of — was Gen. McClellan's own ill judged scheme of operations, 
by which he gave the Rebels an interior position between himself and the force 
covering Washington. Just as Gen. McDowell was about to start from Fredericks- 
burg, with a reinforcement of forty thousand men, came the news of Jackson's raid 
up the Shenandoah Valley, and Gen. McDowell was ordered by the Piesid nt to 
send first one division, then another, and then his whole force, to follow Jackson — 
a request which is evident from Gen. McDowell's dispatches, he complied with with 



23 

extreme reluctance, as it, for the time being, diverted him from his proposed march 
to joia McClellan, which he had extremely at heart. 

Thus early was the order detaining McDowell's corps to cover Washington fully 
justified ! This, as well as all the circumstances of the case, are fully set forth in a 
dispaich from the President, under date of May 25; in which, after giving the details 
of Jackson's movemeut and the dispositions that had been made in consequence, he 
concludes as follows: 

"If McDowell's force was now beyond cmr rea'h, ire should be utterly helpless. Apprehension 
of something like this, and no unwillingness to sustain you, has always been my reason 
for withholding McDowell's force from you. Please understand this, and do the best yau oat* 
with the force you have." 

I submit if this language does not display, on the part of the President, a temper 
worthy the name of sublime, especially when we cousider it waa addressed to 
the man who, of all others, had most tried his patience — the man whose conduct, on 
numberless occasions, had deserved his severest displeasure — the man to whom the 
President had conceded unlimited means for preparing one of the most powerful 
armies ever raised in any country — the man who, after all, evaded by an attempted 
artifice, the orders of his constitutional chief, thereby exposing the capital of the 
nation to be sacked by the enemy, and exposing also his really grand army to defeat 
and danger of imminent destruction? 

The countermanding of the order given to McDowell, gave McClellan what was 
far more valuable to him than the actual reinforcements which that General would 
have brought — to wit, an excuse, or the semblance of an excuse for further delays. 
For a long time he and his friends were able to saddle on that detention all the 
blame of his failures; but this shallow trick has ceased to be possible since the 
publication of the documents in the case; and I may add that it has ceased to be 
possible since the publication of Gen. McClellan's own report. 

Gen. McClellan states that "the information that McDowell's corps would march 
from Fredrieksburgh on the following Monday, (the 26th,) and that he would be 
under my command, was cheering news, and I now felt that we would on his arrival 
be sufficiently strong to overpower the large army confronting us." This is simulated 
joy and had no being in the bosom of Gen. McClellan at the time. The fact is Geo. 
McClellan did not wish Gen. McDowell to join him by an overland march; he 
wished him to come by water on his rear, and stated at the time that- he would 
rather not have him at all than have him come overland! This fact is abundantly 
proven by numerous di-patches, published and unpublished. Thus, nnder date of 
May 21, he writes: " I fear there is little hope McDowell can join me overland in 
time for the coming battle." (One would suppose from this that he was going to 
fight a battle in ten minutes ) But if he did not think McDowell would be able to 
join him "in time" bv an overland march of fifty mites, (an easy three or four 
days' march,) how co. \ he expect him to join him in time by the water route, 
when, according to his experience, the transit could not have been accomplished 
short of a fortnight? This is iterated and reiterated day after day, and finally, in. 
a dispatch, under date of June 14, he says, with still greater emphasis: 

" It ought to be distinctly understood thiit McDowell and his troops are completely under my 
eontrol. I received a telegraph from him requesting that McCaH"s Division might be placed so 
as to join him immediately on bis arrival. I'hat request does not breathe Ibo proper spirit. — 
"Whxtever troops come to me must be so disposed of as to do the most good. I d > not feel tWI that, 
in such circumstances as those in which 1 am now placed, Gen. McDowell should wish the 
general interest to be sacrificed for the purpose of increasing his command. If I cannot fully 
control a I his troops, I want none of them, but would prefer to fight the battle with, what I 
have, and let others be responsible for the results." 

Now, speaking of what does and what does not " breathe the proper spirit," I 
would like to ask whether th's astounding declaration of Gen. McClellan "breathes" 
exactly the " proper spirit?" According to his own repeated declarations, he was 
in a position in which reinforcements were absolutely essential, and yet he prefers 
not to have them at all, unless he can have them by a route, coming by which they 
would have required thrice the length of time, and by which they would also have been 
put out of the possibilily of offering any protection to the threatened Capital of the 
nation. The only advantage his plan presented is that it would have enabled him 
to break up McDowell's divisions as they arrived, and assign them to the commands 
of his own favorites, and rid him of the man whom he had come to regard with the 
green eye of jealousy. I submit to the candid reader to determine whether Gen. 
McClellan is in a situation to throw himself back on his injured innocence, and 
claim for himself and his conduct such pure and elevated and unselfish and patriotic 
motives, or whether all these claims are not the most hollow and unmitigated 
pretence. 



Of events on the Chickahominy, so damning to McClellan, so humiliating to 
the whole country, there is neither the space nor the patience here to speak.* — 
Two decisive battles were fought on the Chickahominy — Fair Oaks and Gaines' 
Mill. They were not battles of "McClellan's seeking — they were brought on by the 
rebels, and we are thus presented with the odd spectacle of a General seeking a 
special theatre of war for the purpose of making not only an offensive, but a " rapid " 
and "brilliant" movement, compelled each time he met the enemy to fight on the 
defensive. We have the further spectacle of a man who was constantly clamoring 
for reinforcements, fighting his two chief battles, the first with one-half, the second 
with less than one- third his force ! 

To the last we find him persisting in the demand for more troops — to the last 
we find him the man who was ready to 



"Drink up Eslle, eat a crocodile," 



doing nothing with what he had. " If at this instant," says he, the day after the 
battle of Gaines' Mill, " I could dispose of ten thousand fresh men, I could gain the 
victory to-morrow " — a statement to which we might reply that, had he not allowed 
Porter's corps to be slaughtered the day before, he would have had the ten thousand 
he there lost. But it is very remarkable that, with an enemy " two hundred 
thousand " strong, and behind " strong entrenchments," he should have deemed 
himself capable of "gaining the victory" with a feeble reinforcement of ten thousand 
men, which would have been no more than he had during all the time he did not 
" gain a victory." In fact, his victories on paper and in hypothesis, are part of the 
wonderful phenomena of Gen. McClellan's character. 

Having lost his base, and the enemy being planted across his communications, it 
only remained for Gen. McClellan to beat a retreat to the James River. This act 
he dignified at the time by the euphenism of " change of base " — a phrase which 
has since then acquired a ludicrous meaning it will long to lose. 

The retreat to the James, considering the bulk of the enemy was on the left bank 
of the Chickahominy and a long march off, was not difficult. But, notwithstanding 
this fact, and that the troops were put ia the most obvious positions, and that in 
no case was Gen. McClellan present at any of the engagements of the " seven days' 
fight," this movement has been claimed as a master-piece of strategy — compara- 
ble, say his admirers, only to Moreau's retreat through the Black Forest. And I 
dare say that the credit in the one case is about as just as in the other; for Napoleon 
proclaims that Moreau's retreat was "the greatest blunder he ever committed." — 
" As the Directory," adds he, " could not give Moreau credit for a victory, they did 
for a retreat, which they caused to be extolled in the highest terms; but, instead of 
credit, Moreau merited the greatest censure and disgrace for it." I leave the 
parallel to the reader's own apprehension. 

In all the battles during this retrograde movement, we have the same utter want 
of head — Gen. McClellan in each case being absent getting a fresh position to fall 
back upon. This is the first time that we have known that it is the first and highest 
duty of a Commanding General to reconnoitre positions for a retreat. " The Corps 
Commanders," says Gen. Heintzleman, in his testimony before the Committee on the 
Conduct of the War, "fought their troops according to their own ideas. We helped 
each other. If anybody asked for reinforcements, I sent them? if I wanted rein- 
forcements, I sent to others. He [McClellan] was the most extraordinary man I 
ever saw. I do not see how any man could leave so much to others, and be so confident 
that everything would go just right." Even at the last of the series of battles, when 
a defeat would have thrown his army into the James River, at Malvern, we find 
him, with the exception of a brief period previous to and at the end of the fight, 
away "on board a gunboat," and this, notwithstanding the admitted fact that the 
innate valor of our troops gave the enemy so decided a repulse that, if vigorously 
followed up, they might even then have been followed up into Richmond. 

So ends the story of the strange, eventful campaign on the Peninsula — a campaign 
which, though ill-planned, was worse executed, and in which the utter incapacity 
of the Commanding General to take advantage of even such opportunities as fortune 
threw in his way, was most signally demonstrated. Gen. McClellan did not bring 
back with him such an army as he had taken away. He brought back an army 
demoralized, worn down by useless toil, reduced b}' sickness, almost unmatched in 
the annals of war. He found the rebel cause at the lowest ebb, and the rebel army 

* A full criticism of the whole of McClellan's military conduct on the peninsula will be found 
in the series of articles in the N. T. Times, reviewing McClellan's Report, by the present writer. 



demoralized and dispirited. He left one in the flood-tide of success, the morale of 
the other restored by the prestige of great victories. 

IX. 

HOW POPE GOT OUT OF HIS "SCRAPE." 

If the army had sustained itself nobly throughout the sad campaign on the Pen- 
insula, it cannot be denied that so much fruitless toil and so much disaster had 
impaired its morale, while the losses in battle and the epidemics of the region had 
greatly thinned its ranks. It therefore became a serious question when the army 
arrived at Harrisnn's Landing whether it should be allowed to remain or be brought 
away.* At first there seems to have been no other intention than to reinforce McClel- 
lan and let him try it once again. He had promised if furnished with twenty thou- 
sand men to assume the offensive and attempt a fresh advance towards Richmond. 
Accordingly Shield's division was sent him and other troops were about to be forward- 
ed when he put up his request to 50,000 men, and finally demanded reinforcements 
"rather hatch over than under 100,000 strong." It was utterly impossible to furnish 
this number, and this reason, joined to the fact that a majority of the highest officers 
of the army of the Potomac counseled a withdrawal, and that a movement to effect 
a junction with the forces in front of Washington, now under General Pope, was 
essential to cover the Capital against the attack which the rebels were absolutely 
certain to make, and for which they were at this very time actually preparing, de- 
termined the Administration to recall the army from the Peninsula. 

The order for the withdrawal of the army from the Peninsula was given by Gen- 
eral Halleck, on the 3d of August. The point to which it was ordered was Aquia 
Creek, for the purpose of making a junction with the forces under Pope, on the 
Rappahannock. It is hardly necessary to say that after this course was determined 
upon the utmost possible promptitude in execution of the design was absolutely 
neoessary, for there could be p.o doubt that the purpose of the rebels looking to- 
ward a movement on Washington would receive the most powerful stimulus by the 
knowledge of the withdrawal of the army from the Peninsula. 

But instead of this, we find General McClellan sitting down to expostulation, and 
after he had exhausted this, we see him throwing every practical obstacle in the 
way of getting the army back. He urges " the terribly depressi7ig effect on the North 
and the strong probability that it would induce foreign powers to recognize our ad- 
versaries," whereas the fact is, there was hardly an intelligent man in the North 
who was not looking with the most intense anxiety to the removal of the army to 
a position where it could be interposed between the enemy and the menaced Capi- 
tal of the nation. He promises, however, if his counsel does not prevail, to "obey 
the order with a sad heart." 

This " sadness " of his heart seems to have so enfeebled his hand, that though he 
was ordered to commence the removal of the army on the 3d of August, day after 
day passed before anything was done toward it " It is believed," writes General 
Halleck to him under date of the 5th, ''that it [the removal] can be done now 
without serious danger. This may dot be so should there be any delay." 

Finally, on the 10th, he received dispatches which should have stirred the most 
sluggish nature to activity : " They are fighting General Pope to-day — there must be 
no further delay in your movements ; that which has already occurred was unexpected 
and must be satisfactorily explained." This only gives McClellan an opportunity to 
show the enormous "inherent difficulties of the movement" — difficulties which were 
pointed out to him before he started to take the army to the Peninsula, but which he 
then made light of — and he ends by adding : "It is not possible for any one to place 
this army where you wish it in less than a month ; if Washington is in danger now 
this army can scarcely arrive in time to save it !" What a cheering person General 
MeGlellan is ! 

Without following these transactions through all their maddening details, suffice 
it ta say that it was the 20th of the month — seventeen days after the order for with- 
drawal was given — before the army was ready to embark at Yorktown, Fortress 

* There is connected with this portion of McClellan's career one curious piece of history that 
merits a passing notice here. Readers of the Report will not have failed to have noted an extra- 
ordinary letter addressed by General McClellan to the President, from Harrison's Bar, under date 
of July 7, giving his " views '' on the political situation. This document opens with this state- '* 
ment that the "rebellion has assumed the character of a war " — a discovery which, perhaps, 
explains the peace principles on which General McClellan had been operating, but which It is 
a misfortune he did not make at an earlier date. It then proceeds to indicate a politico-military 
programme of the moral suasion stamp, stating that " a deolaration of radical views, especially 



26 

Monroe and Newport's News, And with this I leave it, to find it turning up 
again at Alexandria, where I shall have to review a series of events, the most ex- 
traordinary, perhaps, in General MeClellan's extraordinary career. 

The whole rebel army was 'now rapidly marching northward to overwhelm Pope 
and precipitate itself on Washington. If Gen. MeClellan's own estimate of the rebel 
force, at 200 000, was correct, Pope had upon him a force six times his strength, 
and, as it. was, he certainly had upon him a force three or fowr times his strength. 
His instructions were to " stand fast" on the Rappahannock — to "fight like the 
devil and contest every inch of ground." In this task, he was cheered by the 
announcement that from Alexandria he would speedily receive heavy rein- 
forcements, among which was the corps of Franklin, which he designed to move to 
Gainesville, a position which covered Manassas Junction, and watched the gaps in 
the Piedmont Ridge. 

With the view of giving effect to this purpose, Gen. Halleck, on the morning of 
the 27th of August, telegraphed to McClellaii, who had arrived in Alexandria the 
day before, and through whom all reinforcements to Pope must pass, that " Frank- 
lin's corps should march in the direction of Manassas as soon as possible." Had 
this order been obeyed, Jackson's force*, defeated and driven by Pope on the 27th, 
would have been met near Centreville the next afternoon and crushed. 

Now I ask of the reader to bring all the attention and patience he can conmand, 
while I show with what fertility of device, and what prodigality of ingenuity, 
Gen. McClellan contrived so to arrange Brings that Pope should not get a man of 
these reinforcements; but should be left with his feeble force of less than forty 
thousand men to a death-grapple with the enemy that had lately defeated MeClel- 
lan's once splendid army of one hundred and fifty thousand men: in other word*, 
should be left to — I use Gen. MeClellan's own choice phraselogy — " get out of his 
scrape." And I shall show that, so comjletely successful was he that not a single 
man ever reached Pope after McGlellan arrived at Alexandria. 

In this expose I shall take up event? in their chronological order, beginning with 
the date of the first dispatch to McClellan with reference to the forwarding of re- 
inforcements. I shall show what was the state of facts in front, what were the ne- 
cessities of the occasion, what orders Gen. McClellan received, and how he carried 
them out. Let me add that I shall not draw from the testimony of Gen. Pope, nor 
from the overwhelming array of facts developed by the Committee on the Conduct 
of the War. 1 shall confiine myself to the simple setting forth of the text of the 
series of telegrams that passed between, jlveadquarters and Gen. McClellan, though 
I shall be forced to draw from many dispatches which Gen. McClellan, for reason? 
best known to himself, has not seen fit to reproduce in his eo-called " Report." 

The -11th of August — At 10 A. M., Gen. Halleck telegraphs McClellan: 

"'Franklins Corps should march in that direction [Manassas] as soon as possible." 

At 10 20 Gen. McClellan replies: 

"I have sent orders to Franklin to prepare to march, and to repair here [Alexandria] in 
person, to inform me as to his means of transportation." 

At noon Gen. Halleck reiterates, with emphasis, his order to Fraiaklin to 
march. 

" Franklin's corps should move oat by forced marches, tarrying three or four days provision." 
fee. 

To this Gen. McClellan replies at 1 15 P. M. : 

"Franklin's artillery have no horses, except for fonrguns;" and adds: " I do not see that toe 
have force en eugh in hand to form a conntction with Pope, whose enact position we do not 

Is it not very strange that in order that, Franklin shou d march with his corps, Gen. 
McClellan should begin by calling him away/rom it? If Franklin's artillery lacked 
horses, why did he not take horses which were in abundance in Alexandria? That 
this was so, I shall presently establish conclusively ; and I shall also show that 
neither McClellan, nor Franklin, ever applied for transportation to the Quartermas- 
ter's Department, which was ready iristahug to furnish it. 

upon Slavery, will rapidly disintegrate our present armies.' Now, whxt is notable in this 
paper is, that it was writen in Wnshinatou before he left fir his Peninsular campaign, and icat 
intended to be issued in Richmond He fancied he would there be in a position to dictate terms 
and indicate the public policy. Not finding his expected opportunity to fire off the shot he had 
prepared, he took the best occasion he couid find ; and so, putting on a "tag" at the beginning 
and the end, lie brought it out at Harrison's Landing Its ineffable impudence, the haggard 
and untimely look it wears, and the inherent absurdity of the proposition t<> deal loniently 
with those at whose hands he had just suffered disastrous defeat, are sufficiently accounted (orb. 
tb« circumstances detailed. 



27 

The 2Sth of August. — On the morning of the 28th, Halleck. telegraphs directly to 
Franklin : 

"On parting with Gen. McClellan. about 2 o'clock this morning, it was understood that you 
were to move with your corps to-day toward Manassas Junction, to drive the enemy from the 
railroad. I have just learned that the general has not returned to Alexandria. If you have not 
received his orcter, act on this." 

To this, at 1 P. M., McClellan, not Franklin, replies: 

"Tour dispatch to Franklin received. I have heen doing all possible to hurry artillery and 
cavalry. The moment that Franklin can be started with a reasonable amount of artillery he shall 
go ***** * Please see Barnard, and be sure ttie works toward the Chain 
Bridge are perfectly secure. I look upon those works, Ethan Allen and Marcy, as of the first 
importance " 

At 3 30 P. M., Halleck impatiently telegraphs McClellan: 

" Not a moment must be lost in pursuing as large a focce as possible toward Manasses, so as 
to communicate with Pope be/ore the enemy is reinforced.' 1 '' 

To this McClellan repliel at 4 40 P. M.: 

" Gen Franklin is with me here. I will know in a few minutes the condition of artillery and 
cavalry. We are not yet in a condition to move — may be by to-morroio morning." 

At 8 40 P. M., Halleck still more imperatively telegraphs: 

"There must be no further delay in moving Franklin's corps toward Manassas ; they must go to- 
morroio morning, ready or not ready. If we delay too long to get ready, there will be no ne- 
cessity to go at all for Pope mill either be defeated or ■victorious without our aid. If there is a 
want of wagons, the men must carry provisions with them till the wagons can come to their 
relief." 

To which Gen. McClellan replies at 10 P. M. : 

'•Tour dispatch received. Franklin's corps has been ordered to march at 6 o'clock to-morrow 
morning, Sumner has about 14,000 infantry, without cavalry or artillery, here." 

These dispatches give the history of the 28th of August. Not one of these is 
published by Gen. McClellan in his Report. They show the reiterated orders Gen. 
McClellan received to send reinforcements to Pope, and the imminence of the crisis 
that was upon that General. They show on the part of McClellan the shallow sub- 
terfuges he employed to avoid obeying these orders. In this whole series of excus- 
es, there is but one that presents even the show of sebstantiallity — namely the sup- 
posed lack of transportation ; but the utter baselessness of this pretence is made 
manifest by a dispatch of Gen. Halleck a day or two afterward, in which he says: 
"I learned last night (29th) that the Quartermasters Department would have given 
him (Franklin) plenty of transportation if he had applied for it any time since his 
arrival at Alexandria." 

The 29th of August. — At length, two whole days after the imperative order was 
given to Gen. McClellan to have Franklin "move out by forced marches," he is able 
to say, "Franklin's corps is in motion." To be sure, Gen. McClellan confesses that 
his repeated promises throughout the the two previous days to send Franklin for- 
ward were all sham, for he says; "I should not have moved him but for your press- 
ing orders of last night." Still he is at length under way, and there is yet a possi- 
bility that he will reach Pope in time. Vain hopel He halts Franklin at Anan- 
dale and coolly telegraphs to Halleck: 

" Do ycni wish the movement of Franklin's corps to continue T He is without reserve ammuni- 
tion and without transportation." 

Gen. Halleck must be a very mild mannered man, for he simply replies: 

" I want Franklin' 8 corps to more far enough to find out something about the enemy. Perhaps 
he may get such information at Anandale as to prevent his going further ; otherwise, he will 
push on toward Fairfax. Try to get something from direction of Manassas, either by telegrams 
or through Franklin's scouts. Our people must move more actively, and find out where the ene- 
myis. lam tired of guesses." 

Gen. McClellan had now exhausted all the resources of a diabolical ingenuity in 
order to keep Pope from receiving reinforcements. He had by this means gained 
two days aud a half; that is, from 10 A. M. of the 27th until 3 P. M. of the 29th. 
He knew that Pope had by this time the whole rebel army upon him. He knew 
that a great battle was that very morning and afternoon going on, for the roar of 
the artillery came to his ears at Alexandria, where he held thirty thousand loyal 
Americans in the leash, while their brothers in arms were being overwhelmed. It 
was a crisis with McClellan, and he must either let the troops go forward to Pope 
or devise a new system of tactics. He could no longer pretend that he did not 
know where Pope was — he could no longer pretend that he did not know how far 
Gen. Halleck wished Franklin to advance. He was brought to the wall by Gen. 
Halleck's emphatic order. " Our people must find out where the enemy is /" 

Gen. McClellan was equal to the emergency. He drops the correspondence with 
Halleck, and cooky indites to the President of the United States the following dis- 



28 

patch, the most extraordinary ever penned by any man wearing a soldier's uniform. 
I pause for a moment to ask the reader to take in a full realizing sense of the 
import of the following amazing words: 

' ' The last news I received from the direction of Manassas was from stragglers, to the effect 
that the enemy were evacuating Centerville and retiring towards Thoroughfare (Jap. This is by 
no means reliable. I am clear that one of two courses should be adopted. Firnt — To concen- 
trate all our available forces to open communication with Pope. Second — To leave Pope to get 
out of his scrape, and at once to use all means to make the Capital perfectly safe. No middle 
course will now answer. Tell me what you wish me to do and I will do all in my power to ae- 
comolish it. I wish to know what ray orders and authority are. I ask for nothing, but will obey 
whatever orders you give. I only ask a prompt decision, that I may at once give the necessary 
orders. It will not do to delay longer." 

Expressive silence is the only possible comment on this astounding proposition, 
for the profound horror and contempt such words inspire take away all power of 
cool dissection. It is said that when Mr. Lincoln read this dispatch he fell back in 
his chair in a half fainting fit.and even at this distance of time it is hardly possible 
to read it without a sinking of the heart. 

General MuClellan in the above proposition suggests two courses. I need not 
say that they are substantially one and the same. He knew that Lee's junction with 
Jackson was now certain — Fitz John Porter had. attended to that In either case, 
therefore, Pope was perfectly certain to be left to "■gel out of his scrape." 

But what was the " scrape " out of which Pope was to get? Into what horrible 
indiscretion — so unwarranted that to leave him to '"get out" of it was only just 
punishment on him — had he rushed ? Will it be believed that he got into "the scrape" 
at the urgent instance of General McClellan, who begged Pope to make a diversion 
in his favor ? Will it be believed that, with the loyal alacrity of a true soldier, he 
hod, in obedience to this request, thrown himself down on the Rapidan to compel 
the enemy to loose his hold on the Army of the Potomac — that he received the 
•whole weight of the rebel force precipitated upon him — that with masterly general- 
ship he kept back that force for seventeen days, fighting in that time several large 
battles, in which, repeatedly successful, he gave the rebels their first taste of true 
punishment — that by this means he succeeded in gaining time sufficient for General 
McClellan to bring back his army to the defence of the Capital? Yet such are the 
facts which history records. Now we understand. This- was the " scrape '" Pope 
was to get out of! 

The 30(h of August. — I have exhausted the main action in this strange drama, 
but there remains an episode that should take its place in this recital. So far as the 
keeping back of reinforcements goes, General McClellan had done his be3t that Pope 
should not "get out of his scrape." But there remains a touch beyond this. Pope's 
ammunition, rations and forage were now exhausted, and he sent to Washington to 
procure supplies. General McClellan was to fill the orders. You shall now see how 
he did it. 

To the request for atnmmunition, General McClellan telegraphs at 1 : 10 p. in. : 
"I know nothing of the calibre of Pope's artillery." Yet he was withiu two minutes 
telegraphic communication with the Ordnance Bureau at Washington, where be 
might have had full information on this point. 

To the request for rations, General Franklin replies : 

"I have been instructed by General McClellan to inform you that he will have all the available 
wagons at Alexandria loaded with rations for your troops, and all of the oars also, as soon as you 
will send in a cavalry escort to Alexandria as a guard to tee traiu-. 

I cannot better set forth this matter in its true bearings than by giving the 
following passage from General Pope's official report : 

H About daylight of the 80th, I received a note from General Franklin, written by direction of 
General McClellan, informing me that rations and forage would be loaded inio all the available 
wagons and cars at Alexaddria, as soon as I would send bacd a cavalry escort to guard the trains. 
Such a letter, when we were fighting the enemy, and Alexandria was swarming with troops, needs 
bo comment. Bad as was the condition of our cavalry, I was in no situation to spare troops from 
the front, nor could they have gone to Alexandria and retunred within the time by which w* 
must have had provisions or have /■ lien back in the direction <>f Washington; nor do I st-e 
wfutt service caxalry eould have rendered in guarding railroad trains." 

I must let this close this exposition of the extraordinary series of transaction* 
at Alexandria, in which I have done little else than allow offioial'dispatches to tell 
their own story. I leave the reader to form his own judgment and pronounce hi* 
own verdict. But one remark remains. I have hitherto had occasion to call ia 
question General McClellan's capacity. The conduct here set forth invites a ques- 
tion of his loyalty. I cannot enter General McClellan's private thought, and pluck 
oat the "heart of his mystery." It is possible that bis conduct "at Alexandria was 
nothing more than the effect of heartless selfishness and ambition, which can lead 



29 

up to the very door of treason -without passing within. It is now certain that it 
was the avowed purpose of McClellan and his friends so to arrange matters as that 
the army should, to use their expression, " fall back into his arms" at Washington. 
For this end it was essential that Pope should not obtain reinforcements, for had he 
received the thirty thousand troops that lay idle at Alexandria, he would beyond a 
doubt have beaten the rebel army. That he should do so was manifestly not at all 
in General McClellan's programme. 

Looking at General McClellan's conduct as it stands revealed in his own dispatches, 
I can only say to him, " if this be loyalty, make the most of it." 



CLOSING SCENES IN MoCLELLAN'S CAREER. 

If, now, after the expose I have made of the conduct of General McClellan in the 
extraordinary series of transactions recorded in the preceeding chapter, the ques- 
tion be asked, why it was that, after behavior which in any other country in the 
world would have caused him to be court-martialed, we find thar, general not, only 
not called to account, but presently restored to the full command of the Army of 
the Potomac, I frankly reply that this question must be left to history to an- 
swer. History will not. fail to ask the question, but the answer will be given both 
with a fuller knowledge of all the facts in the case than we now possess, and under 
eircumstauces when those considerations of the public good that now put a check 
on our venturing on even such revelations as it is in our power to make, will no 
longer be in force. We can, however, anticipate the verdict in so far as to say that 
history will recognize that, in his action in this matter, Mr. Lincoln was moved only 
by the purest and most patriotic motives, and if his yielding of intellectual convic- 
tions which he must even then have formed, indicated a blumeable weakness, he 
erred only from the excess of his unselfish anxiety for the public good, at a time 
when things and the thoughts of men were pluuged into utter chaos and collapse. 
Pope had now " got out of his scrape " — as best he could, and the army had fal- 
len back to Washington, where the arrangements of McClellan's friends to have it 
" fall into his arms " were crowned with all the success they could have desired. 
Pope tell back to the works in front of Washington on the 2d of September; on the 
same, McClellan took command, and Lee, filing off the left, proceeded to do what Gen- 
eral McCiell.m, in his first memorandum, had staked his military sagacity "no capa- 
ble general" would do — that is, he crossed the Potomac to make his first invasion 
of the loyal States. 

It is not my purpose to review the Maryland campaign with that fullness of de- 
tail that has characterized the analysis of the previous portion of General McClel- 
lan's career, for my aim is not so much to dissect the historical facts themselves as 
to dissect General McClellan's character and conduct as revealed in these facts. 
Now, in this regard, what remains funishes really nothing essentially new. We are 
presented with the same characteristics of genius and generalship which we have 
already discov|jred — the same unreadiness to move promptly and act vigorously; 
the same clamoring for "more troops" before advancing; the same reference to 
the great superiority of numbers on the part of the enemy. It is, after all, a dismal 
story, and has probably already tested the human stomach to its utmost limits. 

In the Maryland invasion, the intentions of Lee, after striking Frederick, appear to 
have aimed exclusively at the capture of Harper's Ferry. His combinations for this 
end are now fully revealed by an order of Lee's found at Frederick, and which dis- 
closes the whole programme of operatiors. By this it appears that the commands 
of Jackson, Longstreet, McLaws, and Walker — that is, in fact, the whole rebel army 
with the exception of the division of D. H. Hill — were assigned parts in the cap- 
ture of Harper's Ferry. The single division of D. H. Hill and part of Stuart's cav- 
alry formed the rearguard destined to check any pursuit of McClellan, while the 
whole rebel force should move to the accomplishment of the end proposed. 

In a military point of view this was a bold operation, and the rebel general should 
have been made to pay dearly for venturing upon it And yet, if we consider that 
the combinations of a commander are necessarily largely influenced by his knowl- 
edge of the character of his opponent, we must admit that Lee, aware of the tardy 
genius of McClellan, was authorized in taking a step which, against a vigorous op- 
ponent, ought to have secured his destruction. At any rate, the event fully justi- 
fied his action. McClellan, intrusted with the duty of meetine and crushing the 
invading army, moved out by slow and easy stages — at an averaye of six miles a day 
— and accommodated Lee with all the time he needed. Of eourae, he was able to 



30 

accomplish his designed object — the capture of Harper's Ferry, its garrisons and 
stores; but connected with this, and General McClellan's responsibility for it, there 
are one or two circumstances that deserve more detailed examination. 

There is no doubt that the moment Lee crossed the Potomac, the forces at Har- 
per's Ferry were placed in a false position and should have been promptly with- 
drawn. But we find no recommendation to this effect by General McClellan during 
the period in which it was possible to carry it out. His first utterance on the sub- 
ject is in a dispatch to General Halleck, dated " Camp near Rockville, Sept. 10," 
in the following terms : 

"Colonel Miles is at or near Harper's Ferry, as I understand, with nine thousand troops. He 
can do nothing where he is, but could be of great service if ordered to join me. I suggest that he 
be ordered to join me by the most practicable route." 

Now let us consider what the result of the execution of this order would have 
been. Lee's instructions to Jackson, Longstreet, &c, to move to the capture of 
Harper's Ferry, are dated the flay previous, Sept. 9. An order to Colonel Miles " to 
join him by the most practicable route," as recommended by McClellan, would, 
therefore, have simply brought, his force into the arms of the rebel army, and Jackson 
would have been saved the trouble of even the semblance of investment he thought 
proper to make of Harper's Ferry. In this state of facts General Halleck's reply of 
the same day to the dispatch of McClellan is as sensible as could possibly have been 
given : 

" There is no way for Colonel Miles to join yon at present ; his only chance is to defend his 
works till you can open communication with him." 

"Till you can open communication with him ;" but with a "pursuit" at the rate 
of six miles a day against an enemy moving at the rate of twenty, was there much 
chance to " open communication ?" Moreover, McClellan lost the opportunity 
offered him of moving by the direct route to Harper's Ferry. Lee calculated that 
by threatening with his rear guard the passage into Pennsylvania he would draw 
McClellan off from the flank march which was open to him to Harper's Ferry. In 
this calculation he was correct, and while he was engaged with a feeble detachment 
of the rebel force at South Mountain, the garrison at Harper's Ferry, 12,000 strong, 
with all its vast military stores, on the 14th fell into the hands of Jackson. As a 
military tribunal has pronounced judgment on this sad affair, there is no need of 
going into it here ; it is proper, however, to eite the conclusion of its finding, which 
is in the following terms: 

" The commission has freely remarked on Colonel Miles, an old officer, who has been killed in 
the service of his country, and it cannot from any motives of delicacy refrain from censuring those 
in high command, when it thinks such censure deserv,ed. The General in-Chief has testified that 
Geueral McClellan, after having received orders to repel the enemy invading the State of Mary- 
land, marched only six miles per day, on an average, wh p n pursuing this invading army. The 
General-in-Chief also testifies that in his opinion General McClellan could and should have re- 
lieved and protected Harper's Ferry, and in this opinion Vie commission fully concur." 

General McClellan's dispatches of this period, carefully suppressed by him from 
his " Report," show that from the first step he took out of Washington in pursuit of 
Lee, he was haunted by those horrible visions of the fabulous legions of the enemy 
that we have seen constantly oppressing him. While still at Rockville, under date 
of the 9th September, we find him writing: "From such information as can be ob- 
tained, Jackson and Longstreet have about a hundred and ten thousand, (110,000) 
men of all arms near Frederick, with some cavalry this side." 

The monstrosity of this estimate is readily apparent from the fact that even had 
the Corps of Jackson and Longstreet been at the full (40,000 men each) their united 
commands could only have numbered eighty thousand ; but it is perfectly well 
known that, after the series of severe actions through which they had gone, their 
corps did not count one-half their complement. But General McClellan was des- 
tined to go several thousand better on this estimate. Reversing the usual maxim 
that 

" 'Tis distance lends enchantment to the view, " 

the nearer McClellan approached the enemy, the vaster his proportions grew. On 
the 11th we find him stating that "almost the entire rebel army in Virginia, 
amounting to not less than 120,000 men, is in the vicinity of Frederick city ;" and 
a day or two afterward that army had resumed its old Chickahominy proportions 
of " 180,000 meu !" Now with regard to Lee's army in Maryland, we have infor- 
mation more than usually precise respecting its strength. It all passed through 
Frederick city, where it was carefully counted, and where it was found to number, 
how many do you suppose? It was found to number precisely Jifty Jive thousand 
effective men I Remember, now, that McClellan's old Peninsular army, swelled in 



31 

"Washington by a great part of the command of Pope, numbered at this time over a 
hundred and twenty thousand men — that is, that McClellan's force outnumbered the 
enemy's more than two to one — and you will have the proper test by which to judge 
of his generalship in the actions which followed. 

The rear guard left by Lee at South Mountain fully succeeded in delaying t^e ad- 
vance of McClellan until such time as Jackson and Hill had compelled the surrender of 
Harper's Ferry and the capitulation of the garrison. But even after arriving before 
Antietam Creek he had still an opportunity on the 16th of September — the day be- 
fore the battle — to strike Lee before Jackson returned. This opportunity, also, he 
threw away. Sajs an English military critic, who always deals tenderly with 
McClellan: "Examining the proceeding* of the 16th of September, by the account 
most favorable to the Federal leader, there can be no doubt that the extreme cau- 
tion which he then displayed caused him to throw away the opportunity of crush- 
ing the enemy, which the resistance of Harper's Ferry, brief though it was, placed 
before him." 

Duri.g that night Jackson arrived with his corps, and the next day, September 
17th, when the movement of Hooker drove McClellan into battle. Lee had his whole 
force massed at Antietam. But his whole force was doubly outnumbered by that 
of McClellan. The battle was delivered without order or ensemble — the attacks 
being made feebly and in driblets. Says General Sumner, in regard to the manner 
of conducting the battle of Antietam: 

" I have always believed that, instead of sending these troops into that action in driblets as they 
were sent, if General McClellan had authorized me to march these 40,000 men on the left flank o 
the enemy, weconld not have failed to throw them right back in front of the other divisions o 
war army on our left— Burnside's, Franklin's, and Sorter's corps. As it was, we went in. division 
after division, until even one of my own divisions was forced out, the other two drove the enemy 
and held their positions. My intention was to have proceeded entirely on by their left and niov-e 
dawn, bringing ihem right in front of Buruside, Krankiin and Porter. 

Question. And all escape for the enemy would have been impossible 7 

Answer. I think so.'* 

On the night of the 18th the enemy, abandoned their position, their ammunition 
being exhausted, and returned across the Potomac into Virginia, without molestation. 
McClellan slowly followed and took up a position along the Potomac, on the Mary- 
land side. Lee established himself at the mouth of the valley, just south of Har- 
per's Ferry. 

If any combination of circumstances can be conceived calculated to prompt a gen- 
eral to energetic preparations to retrieve his tarnished laurels, it was such an ex- 
perience as General McClellen had passed through. The campaign toward Richmond, 
undertaken on his favorite line and began with loud promises of the speedy annihi- 
lation of the enemj', had ended in that enemy's assuming the initiative, invading 
the territory of the loyal States and compelling McClellan's hasty retreat to cover 
the capital. The country, which had lavished its resources to furnish that General 
with an incomparable army, felt the profoundest humiliation and moitidcation 
at the disastrous disappointment of its just, expectations, and after Lee's retreat be- 
gan to look anxiously for a blow to be struck that would retrieve the national 
honor. Antietam having been fought about the middle of September, there was 
a prospect of a season of a couple of months, during which the state of the roads 
and the w. ather would favor military operations, and one would suppose that 
he would eagerly avail himself of this opportunity to strike a blow. As usual 
with him he was during this period constantly promising to do so. On the 27th he 
wrote to Geueral Halleck : " When the river rises so that the enemy cannot 
cross in force, I purpose concentrating the army somewhere near Harper's Ferry 
and then moving," etc. Well, shortly after, this condition was fulfilled, and still 
he remained inactive. The burden of all his communications of this period was for 
more men, and still more men, though he had now under his command an armj 150,000 
strong. On the 6th of October he was peremptorily ordered to '-cross the Potomac and 
give battle to the enemy, or drive him South. Your army must move now while 
the roads are good." Week after week passed without the order being obeyed. — 
To cover up his disobedience he has much to say in his Report of the deficiency of 
the army in sh< es, clothing, etc.; but the bollowness of this pretense is fully dis- 
played in the letters of General Meigs and Halleck, and even by his own chief 
Quartermaster, General Ingalls. Besides, even if there were slight deficiencies in 
this respect, as there will be in every army, (though no army in the world was ever 
supplied as McClellan's was,) it would still have been better for him to have moved 
with this drawback than, by waiting to supply the deficit, to throw the time of 
moving over to the bad season. Said a corps commander in his army to the writer, 

* Report on the Conduct of the "War, TOl. 1, p. 86& « 



82 

on the rainy November morning when the movement finally began, "We could 
better have advanced in September or October with the army barefoot than we can 
now perfectly supplied ! " 

After nearly two months delay, General McClellan was -pried from his base by an 
imperative order, just as he had been pried out of Washington by the like means in 
the preceding April, and he began his forward movement by the inner line, east of 
the Blue Ridge. But it soon became evident from the slowness of his movements, 
the spirit in which he acted, and the complications into which he had phinged 
himself with the military authorities at Washington, that no good results could be 
expected from his campaign. He was accordingly ordered to resign command of 
the army at Warrenton, on the 5th of November. 

Thus closes a career certainly among the most extraordinary on record, and not 
less extraordinary from the record General McClellan has given of it to the world in 
the Report which has formed the subject-matter of this critique. But it is not yet 
possible for any man to follow out in the complex web of historic cause and effect 
all the results that have come, and may yet come, from that career. These results 
are more and other than military, and they did not cease when his military career 
closed. If, having failed as a military commander, he had left us merely the legacy 
of disaster we inherited from him, if we had been only destined to find that th« 
man we had chosen for a leader in the dread ordeal into which the nation was 
plunged by the war was a mere blunderer and incompetent, we might curse onr 
folly and thank heaven for having raised up other men to fight our battles. But he 
left us another heritage than that of military calamities. He darkened men's minds, 
aDd paralyzed their arms, with doubts and fears. The nation had put forth its 
strength lavishly only to see it wasted ; but we could have borne this, had not the 
very springs of confidence been sapped by the charge that all this waste, these dis- 
asters, were due to the incompetence and malevolence of the Administration. While 
still in command, McClellan lent the weight of his endorsement to the rising spirit of 
faction which sought to throw all the blame of his failures upon an Administration 
which the people were taught to believe had by its influence baulked all his bril- 
liant plans, and withheld the material needed to their execution. On being removed 
from command. McClellan put these slanders formally on record in his so-called 
Report. He has ended by becoming the leader of a party which, going on the effect 
produced by these vilifications of the Administration, seeks to obtain control of the 
destinit* uf this nation. I have attempted to expose the falsity of these charges, 
if not with the expectation of silencing the clamor of men seeking their greatness in 
their country's ruin, at least with the hope of disabusing honest men of mistaken 
notions long assiduously inculcated, and anticipating for the military conduct of 
Mr. Lincoln's Administration a part of that justice which history will accord it. 



GBOBGE H. PENDLETON, 



HE COPPERHEAD CANDIDATE 



FOR VICE-PRESIDENT. 



V^e^m'tCe-l*-) COM£X-e.SS\OV\-A c 



• 



HI* hostility to the American Republic illustrated by his record as a Representa- 
tive in the Congress of the United States front the State of Ohio. 



WASHINGTON, D. C.i 

PUBLISHED BY THE UNION CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEE. 

1864. 






»*/ 



THE COPPERHEAD CANDIDATE FOR VICE-PRESIDENT. 



Geoboe H. Pendleton, now the cancijilate, 
of a party in full sympathy with existing re- 
bellion, for the second office in the gift ot the 
American people, has persistently pursued in 
Congress that course most calculated to encour- 
age the armed enemies of the country, and to 
foster secession and treason of all kinds and 
grades. 

We therefore accuse him upon the face jf his 
record as a publio man, 

Who has consented to a division of the 
country. 

Who has opposed the raising of r.rmies to 
suppress the rebellion. 

Who has opposed the raising of revenues 
and loans to support our armies, to pay the 
interest on the public debt, and maintain the 
public credit. 

Who has opposed the punishment of armed 
traitors and defended their property and other 
interests. 

Who has endeavored to shield the unarmed 
traitors and spies in the loyal States from the 
consequences of their crimes, by preventing 
the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus, 
which suspension is provided by the Constitu- 
tion to meet the case of su«h criminals. 

Who has endeavored in all his public acts to 
prevent-any injury to the institution of slavery, 
which is tbe cause of all the expense, suffering, 
and bloodshed that has befallen the country 
during the last three years. 

Who has been crying Peace ! when he well 
knew that peace could only come by compell- 
ing the rebels to yield to lawful authority or by 
a division of the country. 

Who h&s invited the intervention of the Mon- 



archs of Europe in our domesM<» troubles by 
opposing every declaration of Congress against 
it. 

Who has opposed legislation to maintain the 
constitutional guarantee of a republican form 
of government to Sates whose recognized gov- 
ernments had been overthrown by a powerful 
and unlawful organization. 

Who has in many ways endeavored to em- 
barrass and hinder the constituted authorities 
in their efforts to vindicate the Union and Con- 
stitution from the attacks of rebels and traitors. 

And for the truth of this accusation, we ap- 
peal to the record of his public acts. 

Mr. Vallandigharn, in 1861, introduced in 
Congress a resolution to amend the Consti- 
tution, which might more justly be called a reso- 
lution to encourage and legalize secession, from 
which the follwing are extracts': 
Article xm. 

Section I. The United States' are divided into four sec- 
tions as follows: 

The Stutes of Maine, New n.impshlre, Vermont, Massa- 
chusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York. New Jer- 
sey, and Pennsylvania, and all new States annexed and 
admitted into the Union, or formed or erected within the 
jurisdiction of any of said States, or by the junction of two 
or more of the same or of parts thereof, or out of territory 
acquired north of said States, shall constitute one section, 
to be known as the Nortu. 

The States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wiscon- 
sin, Minnesota, Iepva, and Kans;is, and all new States an- 
nexed or admitted into the Union, or erected within the 
jurisdiction of any of said States, or by the junction of two 
or more of the same or of parts thereof or out of territory 
now held or hereafter acquired north of latitude thirty-six 
degrees tliirty minutes aud oust of the crest of the Rocky 
mountains, shall constitute another section, to be known at 
tho West. 

The States of Oregon and California, and all new States 
annexed aud admitted into the Union, or formed or erected 
within the jurisdiction of any of said States, or by tlie 
junction of two or more of the same or of parts thereof, or 
out of territory now held or hereafter acquired west of the 
crest of the Rocky mountains and of the Rio Grande, shall 
constitute another section, to be kaowi: a* the Pacific. 

The States of Delaware, Maryland, Viruinio. Jlartk Ciu> 



i c ;tm, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Missis- 
sippi. Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky, and 
Missouri, and nil new States annexed and admitted into th"e 
Union, or formed or erected within the jurisdiction of any 
of said States, or by the junction of two or more of the 
same or of parts thereof, or out of territory acquired east 
of the Rio Grande and south of latitude thirty-six degrees 
thirty minutes, shall constitute another section, to be 
known as the South, 

Artiou XIV. 

No State shall secede without the consent of tiu Legis- 
latures of all the States of the section to which the StJite 
proposing to secede belong*. The President shall have 
power to adjust with seceding States all questions arising 
by reason of their secession; but the terms of adjustment 
shall be submitted to the Congress for their approval before 
tbe same ehaSl be valid. 

Mr. Pendleton could see nothing wrong in 
these propositions, and as late as January, 
I8G3, defended them in the House. 

At the session of Congress beginning in De- 
cember, 1862, he opposed, in all its stages, the 
bill " to raise additional soldiers for the service 
of the Government." 

He, with other Copperheads, in the House of 
Representatives, on the 28th of January, 1863, 
succeeded, by motions " to adjourn," " to lay on 
the table," far " a call of the House," " to ex- 
cuse members for not voting," &c, &c, in pre- 
venting the House from coming to a vote on 
that bill, until, having sat all night, it adjourned 
at half past five on the morning of the 2'Jth. 
The vote on the final passage of the bill, was 
reached February 2, 18G3, when he voted against 
the bill. 

At the same session he opposed, in all its 
stages, the bill " for enrolling and calling out 
the national forces, and for other purposes," 
and voted against the bill on its final passage, 
February 25, 18G3. 

And at the last session of Congress, he op- 
posed, in all its stages, the bill to amend the 
act, calling forth the militia to execute the laws 
of the Union, suppress insurrection, and repel 
invasion, and pursued the same course on all 
bills relating to the same subject. 

January ll, 1864, he voted against the fol- 
lowing : 

Whereas the burden of government should bo made to 
(alias nearly equally as possible upon all parts of thocoim- 
t.-y ■ and whereas the southern portion of the country has 
for several fears, contributed liUle,either in men or money, 
toward the support ol th-Government; and whereas almost 
the only way lo g. t men from that portion i3 to take black 
men; and whereas for every black man enlisted in the 
South some man in the overburdened North may be exemp- 
ted from the draft. 

It Is iherefore hereby declared to be the sense of this 
house that the Government should use'its most strenuous 
efforts to procure the voluntary enlistment of persons 
claimed as slaves in the rebel territory, by' giving tjiem the 
full bounty and pay of other soldiers, and by guaranteeing 
their freedom, at once, upon enlistment. 

Ai\ddurit\itt.halast session, by many other votos, 



endeavored to prevent the filling up of oax 
armies. 

He has opposed, in every way known to leg- 
islative fillibusters, the passage of bills for rais- 
ing a revenue sufficient to pay the army and 
navy, and provide them with tbe means neces- 
sary to prosecute the war. 

July 10, 1861, in company with Vallandig- 
ham, Voorhees, Wood, and six others of like 
stripe, he voted against the bill further to pro- 
vide for the collection of duties, imports, and 
other purposes. 

July 29, 1861, he voted against the bill to 
provide additional revenues for defraying the 
expenses of Government, and maintaining pub- 
lic credit. 

August 2, 1861, he voted against the bill re- 
ported by a committee of conference of the two 
Houses to provide increased revenues from im- 
ports to pay the interest on the public debt, 
and for other purposes. 

February 7, 1862, he voted against the bili 
to authorize the issue of United States notes, 
and for the redemption and funding thereof, 
and for funding the floating debt of the Unitrd 
States. 

April 8, 1862, with Vallandigham, Voor 
hces, and twelve others, he voted against tin 
passage of the bill to provide internal revenue 
to support the Government and pay the inter- 
est on the public debt. 

June 24, 1862, he voted against the bill " to 
authorize the issue of demand Treasury notes." 

July 14, 1862, he voted against the bill " tc 
impose an additional duty on sugars produced 
in the United States." 

lie has opposed all propositions to confiscaU 
property of rebels, whether used for insurrec- 
tionary purposes or not. 

August 2, 1861, he voted to lay on the tabl« 
the bill to confiscate property used for insur- 
rectionary purposes. 

August 3, again voted to lay the bill on the 
table, and on the same day voted against the 
bill on its final passage. 

At the session beginning December, J.861, he 
voted, May 26, 1862, against the House bill 471, 
to confiscate the property of rebels for the pay 
ment of the expenses of the present rebellion, 
and for other purposes. 

July 15, 1862, he opposed Mr. Maynard'R res- 
olution explanatory of " An act to suppress re- 
bellion, to punish treason and insurrection, to 



5 



leize and confisate property of rebels, and for 
other purposes." 

June 4th, 1862, he voted against the bill 
declaring disloyal persons ineligible to office. 

June 9th, 1862, he voted against the fol- 
lowing resolution : 

Resolved, That, in the judgment of this Uouse,.the Com- 
mander-in-Chief of the army and navy of the United 
States should instinct all of his officers, holding command 
in districts of country in rebellion against the Government, 
to make proclamation that henceforth the armies of the 
Republic shall be subsisted, so far as practicable, upon the / 
property of all those who are In rebellion, or are giving aid 
Ind comfort to the enemies of the United States. 

January 12th, 1863, he voted against the 

following resolution : 

Resolved, That the Committee on Military Affairs be, 
and are hereby, instructed to inquire into the expediency, 
and necessity of granting a bounty land warrant of 160 
acres of land to every soldier now serving in our army, or 
who may hereafter eulist in any of the old regiments, the 
laud warrants to be located on any confiscated rebel plan- 
tation which the holder of the warrant juay select, aB soon 
as the war is ended and the rebellion crushed, and report 
oy bill or otherwise. 

He opposed the bill to provide for the collec- 
tion of abandoned property, and for the pre- 
vention of frauds in insurrectionary districts 
within the United States. He moved, March 
3d, 1863, to lay the bill on the table; and by 
a multitude of other votes has opposed any 
punishment of the rebels now in arms against 
the Government. 

He opposed the bill " to indemnify the Presi- 
dent and other persons for suspending the 
privilege of the writ of habeas corpus," and 
voted against the bill on its passage in the 
House, December 8th, 1863. 

He opposed all efforts of the two Houses to 
agree on the details of the bill, and finally 
voted against agreeing to the report of the 
oommittee of conference, March 2d, 18G3, and 
has opposed every proposition for the suspen- 
sion of the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus 
in the cases which, if any, the constitutional 
provision was intended to coven. 

January 17th, 18G2, he voted against the 
following proposition : 

" Tliatfmm and after the passage of this act there shall be 
neither slartry nnr involuntary servitude in any of the Ter- 
ritories of the United Slates now existing, or witich limy at 
avy time hereafter be formed or acquired by the United 
States, otherwise than in punishment of crimes xolnereof tlte 
party shall have been duly convicted." 

He voted, February 26, 1862, against estab- 
lishing the following Article of War: 

AimciE — . All officers or persona in the military and 
naval service of the United Slates are prohibited from em- 
ploying any of the forces, under their respective commands 
for the purpose of returning fugitives from service or labor, 
who tiuij have escapod from any persons to whom such 
sen-ice i* labor is etaimwl to be true. Any officer who shall 
be found guilty by court-martail of violating this article, 
»hall be dismissed from the service. 



He Toted, April 11th, 1862, against the bill 
for the release of certain persons held to service 
or labor in the District of Columbia. 

He voted, May 26th, 1862, against the bill to 
free from servitude the slaves of rebels engaged 
in abetting the existing rebellion against the 
.Government of the United States. 

June 9th, 1862, he voted against the following 

resolution : 

Resolved, That the Committee on thg Judiciary be in- 
structed to report a bill modifying the fugitive slave law so 
as to require a jury trial in all cases where the party claimed 
deuies, under oath, that be is a slave, and also requiring 
any claimant under such act to prove that he has been 
loyal to the Government during the present rebellion. 

And by many other votes of like character 
sustained the institution of slavery — the cause 
of this cruel rebellion which has drenched our 
country in blood. 

He opposed the passage of the following res- 
olutions : 

Resolved by the House of Representatives of the UniUd 
States in Congress assembled: 1. That thereltellion, on the 
part of the seceding States against the Government and 
laws of this Uuion was deliberately wicked aud without 
retiaouablo cause ; tho compact of the Union being perpet- 
ual, no State has the constitutional power to forcibly se- 
cede, and that there was no grievance, real or imaginary. 



stitution and laws, it is the duty of the Government to put 
it down, without regard to cost, or the consequences that 
may befall those engaged in it, and all necessary constitu- 
tional means for this purpose, and this alone should be 
furnished by the people. That inasmuch as the great and 
wicked crime invoked the power of the sword, the war 
should be prosecuted with all the vigor and strength and 
means of the Federal Government till rebellion be subdued, 
and no longer. • 

3. That an honorable peace is desirable; but no peace 
while armed opposition menaces the capital, and threatens 
tho overthrow of the Union; nor that peace which would 
be established upon the dismembered fragments of a mighty 
and prosperous nation ; and that man who would entertaii 
peace upon these conditions is a traitor to his country, an*'" 
unworthy tho protection of its laws. 

4. That the war was inaugurated solely for the suppres 
sion of the rebellion and the restoration of tho Union as i 
was; that any and all attempts to change or divert thi 
line of policy is a fraud upon the nation, a fraud upon the 
memory of the gallant men who have sacrificed their lives, 
and a fraud upon the living soldiers who now stand up as a 
wall between their loved country and its wicked invaders. 

5. That the value of dollars and cents does not enterinfo 
■the momentous ouestion of the maintenance of popular 
liberty, or the preservation of a free Government, any more 
than tho lives and comfort of the traitors who have conspired 
or leagued together for their destruction. 

C. That the Union restored, the war should cease, and the 
seceding States be received back into the Uuion with all tho 
privileges and immunities to which they were originally 
entitled. 

He voted December IT, 1863, against the fol- 
lowing resolutions: 

Resolved, That our country, and the very existence of the 
best Government aver instituted by man, are imperiled b> 
the most causeless and wicked rebellion that the world has 
ever seen: and believing, as we do, that the only hope oi 
saving t bis counry and preserving this GovernuK'nt is by 
the power of the sword, wo are fo'r the most vigorous prose- 
cution of the war, until tho Constitution and laws shall be 
enforced and obeyed in all parts of the United States; and 
to that end we oppose any armistice, or intervention, or 
ijudiatiou, or proposition for peace from any quarter, so 
long as there shall be found a rebel in arms against th« 



<3k>vsrnroont; and we ignore all party names, lines, and Is- 
sues, ami recognize but tw'o"'parties in this war — patriots 
and traitors. 

Resolved, That we hold it to be the duty of Congress to 
pass all necessary bills to supply men. and money, and the 
■luty of the people to render every aid in their power to the 
instituted authorities of the Government in tbie crushing 
■mt of the rebellion, and in bringing the leaders thereof to 
condign punishment. 

This resolution was adopted by a vote of 
veas 153, nays 1. The nay was Mr. Pendleton's 
particular friend, Benjamin G. Harris, of Ma- 
ryland. Mr. Pendleton dodged. 

December 21, 1863, when a joint resolution, 
providing for deficiencies in former appropria- 
tions for the army, was under consideration, 
Mr. Harding, of Kentucky, moved the follow- 
ing amendment : 

Provided, That no part of the money aforesaid shall be 
applied to the raising, arming, equipping, or paying of negro 
•oldiers. 

The amendment was rejected by a vote of 
yeas 41, nays 105 — Mr. Pendleton voting with 
the minority. The negro troops were then in 
actual service, so that the object of the amend- 
ment was to cheat them out of their pay, and 
to 'violate the plighted faith o"f the Government. 
Even Ferna#d*) Wood voted against this mean 
attempt at repudiation ; but it met the appro- 
bation of Mr. Pendleton. 

January 18, 1864, Mr. Smith, of Kentucky, 
submitted a preamble and resolution, as fol- 
lows : 

Whereas a moat desperate, wicked, and bloody rebellion 
ixists within the jurisdiction of the United States, and the 
safety and security of personal and national liberty depend 
upon its absolute and utter extinction : Therefore, 

Resolved, That ft is the political, civil, moral, and sacred 
duty of the people to meet it, fight it, crush it, and forever 
destroy it. 

Mr. James C. Allen moved to lay the pream- 
ble and resolution on the table, but it failed, 
though Mr. Pendleton voted with him — yeas 26, 
nays 102. 

The resolution was then adopted — yeas 112, 
nays 16 ; Mr. Pendleton voting in the negative,, 
with Wood, Voorhees, James C. Allen, Long, 
Harris, of Maryland, Ancona, and other Cop- 
perheads. 

February 15, 1864, Mr. Arnold submitted 

the following resolution : 

Resolved, That the Constitution should be so amended as 
to abolish slavery in the United^ States wherever it now 
exists, and U> prohibit its existence in any part thereof for- 
ever. » 

Mr. Pendleton in the negative. 

Feb. 3*i .664, Mr. Schenck submitted the 

following r«-tso"u'.ions : 

Resolved, Trjat the present war, which this Government 
Is carrying on agaiiiHt armed insurrectionists and others, 
banded together under the name of ♦' Southern Confederacy," 
was brought on by a wicked and wholly unjustifiable re- 



bellion, and all those engaged in, or aiding, or encouraging 
it are pubfic enemies, and should lie treated as such. 

Resolved, That this rebellion shall be effectually put. 
down; and that, to prevent the recurrence of such rebel- 
lions in future, the causes which led to this one must be 
permanently removed. 

Resolved, That in this struggle which is go'ng on for the 
saving of our country and free government, there is no 
middle ground on which any good citizen or true patriot 
can stand ; neutrality, or fudtffereuce, or anything short of 
a hearty support of the Government, boiug'a crime where 
the question is between loyalty and treason. 

The first resolution was agreed to without a 
count. On the second, a division was called 
for, and the first part adopted. The latter por- 
tion, declaring that " to prevent the recurrence 
of such rebellions in future, the oauses which 
led to this one must be permanently removed," 
was voted upon. The yeas were 124 ; the nays 
were none. Mr. Pendleton dodged. 

The vote was then taken upon the last reso- 
lution, which simply declares that in this strug- 
gle there is no neutral ground for an honost 
man to stand upon, and that every loyal citizen 
must stand by the Government. It was adop- 
ted, yeas, 109 ; nays, none. But Mr. Pendla- 
ton could not go it. He dodged. Even Cox voted 
for this and the preceding resolutions, but Mr. 
Pendleton, more candid and consistent in his 
adherence to the South, Btood aloof. Too proud 
to vote a sentiment which was abhorrent to 
him, yet lacking firmness to vote against it, he 
dodged, while the facile little Cox swallowed 
the bitter pill. That Mr. Pendleton was pres- 
ent, is apparent from the fact that immediately* 
following the vote he took the floor, and offered 
a resolution protesting against the arrest and 
punishment of his friend Vallandigham. 

March 28, 1864, Mr. Stevens introduced a 
joint resolution submitting two amendments to 
the Constitution of the United States, to be 
acted upon by the States. The proposed 
amendments are as follows : 

Article 1. Slavery and involuntary servitude, except for 
the punishment of crimes, whereof the party shall have 
been duly convicted, Is forever prohibited in the United 
States and all its Territories. 

Art. 2. So much of article four, section two, as refers to 
the delivery up of persons held to service or labor escaping 
into another State, is annulled. 

A motion was made to lay the proposition on 
the table, but it was rejected — yeas 45, nays 75. 
Mr. Pendleton voted to lay on the table ; and, 
on May 31, voted against the joint resolution. 

On April 9, a resolution was offered to expel 

Benjamin G. Harris, a Representative from the 

State of Maryland, for uttering the following 

treasonable language in that body : 

The South asked you to let them live in peace. But no 
you said you would bring them into subjection. That is 
not done yet ; aud God Almighty grant that it never may 
be. I hope that you will never bubjugate the South. 



')n the vote to expel, the yeas were 84, nays 
58, Mr. Pendleton voting in the negative. 

On the 14th of April, he gave a similar vote 
against the censure of his colleague, Mr. Long. 

June 13, 1864, Mr. Pendleton voted against 
the army appropriation bill, as finally agreed 
upon by committees of conference of the two 
Houses. 

On the same day, Mr. Pendleton voted against 
the repeal of the fugitive slave acts. The vote 
stood — yeas 90, nays 62. 

June 15, 1864, Mr. Pendleton voted against 
the joint resolution of the Senate proposing to 
the States changes of the Constitution so as to 
prohibit slavery. 

July 7, 1864, he voted against the following : 

Whereas the organized treason having Its headquarters 
at Richmond exists in defiant violation of the national 
Constitution, and has no claim to he treated otherwise 
than as an outlaw; and whereas this Richmond comhina- 
tlon of conspirators and traitors can have no rightful 
authority over the people of any portion of the national 
Onion, and no warrant for assuming control of the political 
destiny of the people of any State or section of this Union, 
and no apology but that of conspiracy and treason for any 
assumption of authority whatever: Therefore, 

JienolntU, That any proposition to negotiate with the rebel 
leaders at Richmond (sometimes called "the authorities at 
Richmond") for a restoration of loyalty and order in those 
portions of the Republic which have been disorganized by 
the rebellion is, in effect, a proposition to recognize the 
ringleaders of the rebellion as entitled to represent and 
bind the loyal citizens of the United States whom they op- 
press, and to give countenance and support to the preten- 
■ious of 'conspiracy and treason; and therefore every such 
proposition should be rejected without hesitation and 
delay. 

March 3, 1864 — He voted against the Senate 
resolutions against foreign intervention in the 
existing rebellion, of which resolutions the fol- 
lowing is one : 

Resolved, That the United States are now grappling with 
an unprovoked and wicked rebellion, which is seeking the 
destruction of the Republic that it may build a new Power, 
■whose corner-stone, according to the confession of its chiefs, 
shall be slavery; that for the suppression of this rebellion, 
and thug to save the Republic and to prevent the estab- 
lishment of 0k- h a Power, the national Government is now 
employing armies and fleets, in full faith that through 
these efforts all "the purposes of conspirators and rebels will 
be crushed; that while engaged in this struggle, on which 
eo much depends, any proposition from a foreign Power, 
whatever form it may take, having for its object the arrest 
of these efforts, is, just in proportion to its influence, an 
encouragement to the rebellion and to its declared preten- 
sions, and, on this account, is calculated to prolong and im- 
>>itter the conflict, to cause increased expenditure of blood 
and treasure,, and to postpone the much desired day of peace; 
that, with these convictions, and not doubting that every 
such proposition, although made with good intent, is inju- 
rious to the uatioual interests, Congress will be obliged to 
look upon any further attempt in the same direction as an 
unfriendly act, which it earnestly deprecates, to the end 
that nothing may occur abroad to strengthen the rebellion 
or to weaken those relations of good will with foreign Pow- 
ers which the Uuited States are happy to oultivate. 

January 29, 1862, he voted against the bill to 

authorize the President of the United States, in 

certain cases, to take possession of railroads 

and telegraph lines, in order more effectually to 

Carry on the war against the rebels. 



December 28, 1862, he voted for the post- 
ponement of the bill making appropriations foi 
the support of the army for the year ending 
30th June, 1864, and en the same day dodgec 
the vote on the* passage of the bill. 

He opposed the passage of the following res 
olution : 

r 
Strike out all after the word " Resolved," and Inssrt 
'T)iat this Ifcatse approve of the constant, statesmanlike, atn< 
humane efforts of Vie Administration to securr an exchange w 
our prisoners now in the hands of the rebels, and that it i. 
hereby recommended that such efforts be continued to secur 
an exchange of all our prisoners now in southern prisons." 

And by more than a hundred votes of like 

character has endeavored to hinder the Govern 

ment in the suppression of the rebellion. 

HTS SPEECHES. 

He says in a speech in the House of Repre 
sontatives, January 18, 1S61 : 

To-day, sir, four States of the Union have, as far as then 
power extends, seceded from it. Four States, as far as the> 
are aide, have annulled the grants of power made to tin 
Federal Government ; they have resnnied the powers del" 
gated by the Constitution; they have canceled, as far v~ 
they could, every limitation upon the full exercise of a' 
their sovereign rights; they do not claim oui ^protection 
they ask no benefit from our laws; they seek none of tb< 
advantages of the confederation. . On the other hand, they 
renounce their allegiance; they repudiate our authority 
over them; and they assert that they have assumed, scant 
of them that they have resumed, their position among ti 
family of sovereignties, among the nations. 

Sir, Ideal in no harsh epithets. I will denounce no State 
no body of men. I will not pause to inquire whether the;, 
have done all this legally or wisely, or upon sufficient catyse 
Tliey have don« it, and I recognize the fact. They have don- 
it with a unanimity of sentiment, with a coincidence < ■; 
opinion among the people, which is without parallel in the 
history of revolutions; and the simple question presented 
to us to-day is. this : whether, throughout the limits of those 
States, which have thus formally, thus orderly, thus by (hr. 
enactments of representative bodies of highest capacity 
known to the civilized nations— conventions duly author- 
ized and properly elected to consider this very question- 
have declared themselves independent ofns, we are prepared. 
I iy force of arms, to maintain our supremacy and enforce ou» 
laws? 

Next we have Mr. Pendleton's theory of a 
Government with no power to enforie the laws. 
He recites the obligations of the Constitution 
in order to show that they are utterly withou' 
sanction, and that they must always remain null 
and void when resistance is made to them. Mr. 
Webster was wont to say of Mr. Calhoun's con- 
stitutional theories, that they made of the Gov- 
ernment a " rope of sand ;" but Calhoun nevei 
pushed his theory of a compact of sovereiga 
States to quke the extreme which Mr. Pendle- 
ton has reached, as we wil* r roceed to show. 
In the same speech he said : 

Now, sir, what force of amis can compel a State to do 
that which she has agreed to dot What force of arms can 
compel a State to refrain from doing th;it which her St !<? 
government, supported by the sentiment of her people. i> 
determined to persist in doing? It Is provided in ti, • 
Constitution that the citizens of every State shall have al, 
the privileges and immunities of citizens of the sevei 
States. What force of this Federal Government can pompt-l 
the observance of that cliuso.ni' a State la determined to 



pass and execute laws whereby cItizens ( of other States shall 
oot have, within its limits, the same privilege as its own 
.-iii/ans. 

" Full faith and credit shall be given in each State to the 
public acts arid judicial proceedings of every otb^r State." 
H u w will the Federal Government, by armies and arms, en- 
force the observance of that clause in the Constitution, if 
the judiciary and the exocutive authorities of a State, 
supported by the laws refuse such faith and credit ? 

"No State, without the consent of Congress, shnll lay 
M»y impost or duties on imports." Suppose a State should 
pass such a law, and the citizens were willing te execute 
'he- law, what army could prevent it? 

*No State, shall, without the consent of Congress, enter 
into any agreement or compact with a foreign Power." I 
wish to know from gentlemou what number of men it would 
'■equire to annul such an agreement once made. The Gen- 
eral Government is invested with certain powers nec-ssary 
to lie executed, in order to keep the machinery of the Gov- 
pi nment in motion. Can any number of troops, or the uso 
jf any armed force on the part of the States, compel the 
Jeneral Government to execute those powers if the agents 
appointed for that purpose deliberately, persistently refuse 
to execute them ? Sir, the whole scheme of eoercion is im- 
oracticable. It is contrary to the genius and spirit of the 
Qimtitulion. 

Mr. Pendleton again says : 

Sir, the enforcement of your laws, within a seceding 
Suite, in opposition to its will, is coercion of that State, and 
coercion by armed force is war. These terms, "collecting 
the revenue," "enforcing the law," "maintaining the 
I nion," captivate our people. They smack of law and 
jrder, to which our people are very much attached. They 
we not unknown in American history. Our fathers heard 
<hem used in the same tone and spirit, and for the same 
purpose, as we hear them now. In 1768, when the colonies 
were rejoicing at the repeal of the stamp act, Charles Town- 
tend, then a member of Lord Chatham's cabinet, pledged 
to conciliation and peace, rose in the House of Commons, 
ind declared that it was expedient to collect revenues from 
America, and that he would himself bring in a bill to ac- 
complish that result. His declaration was received with 
tumultuous shouts of applause, Ac. 

Mr. Pendleton says further : 

31 y voice to-day is for conciliation ; my voice is for com- 
promise ; and it is but the echo of the voice of my constit- 
uents, I beg yon, gentlemen, who with me represent the 
northwest ; you who with me represent the State of Ohio ; 
you who with me represent the city of Cincinnati — I beg 
pen ewitleme'i te hear that voice ff yoit 



find conciliation impossible ; if your differences are so greal 
that you cannot or will not reconcile them, then, gentlemen, 
let the seceding States depart in peace ; let them establish 
their government and empire, and work out their destiny 
according to the wisdom which God has given them. 

But we resume our extracts from Mr. Pen- 
dleton's speech. He continues : 

My colleague (Mr. Stanton) gaid the other day that wax 
seemed inevitable. He said the end of that war was disso- 
lution and disunion. If he said truly, if he judged wisely, 
in God's name 1 H ua leap over the intervening agony oi 
war, and come to the end and conclusion at once. 

If George III had conciliated his colonies, how much 
wiser a man would history have proclaimed him I If, fail- 
ing to conciliate, he had allowed the separation without the 
disgrace and defeat of the Revolutionary war, how much 
wis'T a man still would ha hare been I 

Mr. Stanton. 1 would be glad' to know of my colleagus 
if he bolds that there iM any power in any department of 
tub Government to recognize the secession of a State under 
the Constitution. As to the matter of conciliation oni 
compromise, the people of the Boceding Status Bay thej 
want none, and will accept noue ; and, therefore, it is use- 
less to talk of it. I again aBk my colleague whether there 
is auy power, under the Constitntion, to recognize the se- 
cession of a State, and recognize it as a foreign nation. 

Mr. Pexbletox. What may be the constitutional power 
of this Government to recognize the secession of a State, I 
decline to discuss at present, But this I say, if we should 
become engaged in war with a foreign enemy, and a por- 
tion of our territory should be captured and rcduced-jto 
possession by the enemy, and we should be obliged to make 
a treaty of peace on the basis of retaining what each party 
had acquired — Uti possidetis — acknowledging the so-ver- 
eignty of that territory to have passed away from us, cer- 
tii.ilv the Federal Government would have the power to 
conform to our restricted limits, and to confine its jiulsdip 
tion to our admitted boundaries. If war be dismemberment, 
as toy colleague declares, hag not the Federal Government 
as much power to treat that question now as at the end ol 
a war f Will a conflict of arms confer constitutional 
power upon the Federal Government! 

With this, as a part only of a long reoord of 
a similar character, we present to the Ameri- 
can people this accusation of a man who now 
asks their suffrages to exalt him to the second 
•<-.iai*ir>n in th*>ir gift. 



Note. — The above reeord has been carefully made up from the Jourir in 
of the House of Representatives and the Congressional Globe, which is tije 
official organ of Congress ; and every statement made in this pamphlet can 
be fully verified by a reference to them. 



PRINTED AND STEREOTYPED BY McGILL k WITHEROW. 



THE CHICAGO 

COPPERHEAD CONVENTION. 



TREASONABLE AND REVOLUTIONARY UTTERANCE* 

OF THE MEN WHO COMPOSED IT. 



Extracts from all the Notable Speeches delivered in and 
out of the National " Democratic " Convention. 



A SURRENDER TO THE REBELS ADVOCATED -A DISGRACEFUL AND PUSIIr 
LANIMOUS PEACE DEMANDED-THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT SHAME- 
FULLY VILLIFIED, AND NOT A WORD SAID AGAINST THE 
CRIME OF TREASON AND REBELLION. 



^e/^V\x<-^>-\ Gon^rtSsie^-A Gcyy> y»VA\ e «*; ^ 



WASHINGTON, D. 0. 

PUBLISHED BY THE CONGRESSIONAL UNION COMMITTEE. 
1864. 



THE CHICAGO COPPERHEAD CONVENTION. 



This pamphlet contains the spirit of the Chicago " Democratic " Convention. If St 
contains no statements that if the proposed " Armistice and National Convention " expe- 
dients should fail, the Democratic party would put down the rebellion, it is beoause, from 
first to last, no such statements were made. They would have been firebrands in the 
camp, and if uttered in the Convention, would have exploded the " Democracy " into two 
conflicting factions. They u'tered no word of approval of Abraham Lincoln, or disap- 
proval of Jefferson Davis The blood and crimes, the hardships and deprivations, the 
infringements on personal liberty which we all endure, were not, during the entire sitting 
of the Convention, once charged to the rebellion or its leaders, but were by every speaker 
charged wholly, fiercely and relentlessly to the President of the United States, his officers 
and armies. Had the Convention been held in Richmond, Virginia, not a word need 
have been expunged. 

Further, the general spirit and tone of the Convention, so far from looking to a sup- 
pression of the present rebellion, was in favor of a new rebellion against the Government 
in the imagined contingency of " interference with the freedom of the ballot,'' at the 
coining elei tion. Very few of the speakers closed without an exhortation to prepare for 
a fight tiiis fall. As nothing had occurred to indicate such an interference, aud as it is in 
the power of those who met in this Convention to compel the Government to put forth 
its armed force, by themselves inciting disturbance, it is to be presumed, that as in the 
case of the rebel prophecies of disunion four years ago, so now, what these prophets so 
unanimously foresee they have determined to bring to pass. Such a rebellion would re- 
unite them for the time in aim and purpose with their ancient party allies, Jefferson Davis 
and the Southern rebels. It would remove the seat of war from Atlanta, Mobile, and 
Richmond, to Chicago, New York, and Boston. It would set the people of the Northern 
States to cutting each other's throats, to send August Belmont's Confederate stock up to 
par, aud to establish the independence of the Rebellion. 

Such was the tone and spirit of this so-called "Peace Convention." Vallandigham, 
the forerunner in the crime of Northern Rebellion, was the demigod of the occasion. It 
was the tone and spirit of the New York anti-draft riots, where there was prodigious 
cheering for McOlellan — so here — and from the same class, imported in large numbers for 
the occasion. They were not the peaceful citizens of this nation — not the class from 
which a genuine cry for peace could ever come. They were for peace with the rebels 
only because they were for the rebels, for the slavery in behalf of which they rebelled, 
for the secessionism of Calhoun which led them into the rebellion, and for that gilded 
6haui of this day — the name Democracy, which has thus far helped the rebellion on its 
way Sympathizing thus with the rebels, they demanded peace as a service to their 
friends -peace with the country's enemies, and war against its defenders. In one breath 
they chaunted the evils of our present war, and in the next threatened a new rebellion. 
One moment they talked dolorously of the wounded and dying, and the next, threatened 
a free fight against us in our own streets, which would fill every American heart with 
ehame aud dye every American threshold with blood. They have done the rebels good 
service. Had they met, and ou behalf of the Democracy of the North, authoritatively 
inforujed the country that the seceders must submit to the Government or be crushed, the 
rebels would have been more discouraged and their return to the Union more hastened, 
than by the most sanguinary defeat on the battle-field As it is, the emissaries of the 
rebellion in Canada telegraph, ''Platform and Vice-President satisfactory — Speeches very 

SATISFACTORY." 

Republicans and Democrats who are not yet willing to surrender the Union, or to bring 
about another rebellion at the North to complicate a thousand fold the settlement of our 
present difficulties, are these men whose speeches are so very satisfactory to the rebels, 
worthy to be entrusted with the destinies of the country? 

Jg@" That there might be no dispute about the correctness of the extracts of speeches 
in tiie following pages, they were all copied from the columms of the Chicago Times, 
except a few passages taken from the Chicago Tribune's reports, which are credited to it. 

The Chicago Times, of Aug. 25th, stated the object of those attending the Convention 
to be, to make it 

The occasion of a demonstration of democratic power and e&rnestnoeg which will strike terror to the hearts «tf 
vox enemies. 



' + 

3 

We also learn from (he same paper that 

The most distinguished Democrats of the nation will address the people, and open the campaign in the Demo- 
cratic city of the West. 

DR. N. S. DAVIS'S SPEECH. 

Dr. N. S. Davis, of Chicago, delegate for the State at large of Illinois, delivered one of 
tbe most moderate addresses made daring the gathering and s ssion of the Convention, 
before the Invincible Club, Friday evening, Aug. 2Cth. He began by denying that slavery 
tad caused the war, and attributed it to the pride, self-righteousness ami Pharisaism of 
tke Christian churches of the North. These, he said, had 

Corrupted the pure religion of the heart and substituted for it a bigoted fanaticism that stands ready to wrap 
itself iu the mantle of self-righteousness and arrogantly exclaim to all who do not obey its dictates, "I am. 
holier than thou." [Much applause.] 

In this view Dr. Davis agrees with every rebel in the South. He further said : 

Fellow-citizens, from the commencement of this conflict I have, for one, entirely eschewed this word loyal as 
Kattng no place in the vocabulary of a republican people. [Continued applause] * * * * * 

There is one sense, and only one, in which the word loyal has any legitimate place whatever among a repub- 
lican people. It is the last and mOst insignificant definition that is given to it by that old lexicographer, Noah 
Webster, which is, " obedience to law; faithfulness to law." In that meaning pi the term it may be used by a 
republican people. But, if you attach that meaning to the term, who are the loyal party? With that meaning 
to itj of the American people, who are those who have been faithful to the Constitution and to the laws of the 
Eepublic? Who and what party, in spirit, in temper; aii'l iu acts, have trampled, not only the law of the land, 
but the Constitution itself, under their feet? Who are the men that have thus trampled law and the Constitu- 
tion under their feet ? Aro they in the Democratic party? Are they in the great conservative portion of the 
American people ? 

Dr. Davis Seemed to have forgotten the fact that the Democratic party cerried every 
Democratic State in the Union into the rebellion, or else he is not aware that to secede 
from the Union and make war upon it with half a million of men, as the Democrats of the 
South have done, is unconstitutional. With these facts before his mind he could hardly 
ask the question, " Who are the men that have thus trampled law and the Constitution 
under their feet? Are they in the Democratic party? 

vallandiqham's first SPEECH. 

The Chicago Times, of Aug. 27th, in its prelude to Vallandigham's speech, alluding to 
tbe. crowd gathered in the Court House Square, says : 

No wonder, then, that thousauds of people were anxious, in the midst of the great crisis that is now passing, to 
thaw; the sound truths and immaculate teachings of the old Democracy. 

Vallandigham said : 

There are two principal forms of government in the world. Governments founded on the idea of coercion, and 
governments founded on consent. The Declaration of Independence to which we owe our national existence — 
tCe, charter in which is laid down the principles on which our Government is founded — declares that all just 
governments rest on the consent of the governed. Other governments, in other ages arid in other countries, 
have been founded on the idea of coercion, and look to bayonots, cannon, the sword, .to enforce the edicts of tho 
rulers as against the people, to maintain themselves against the wishes and sentiments of the people who are 
tailed their subjects. Governments founded on consent, on the other hand, rely on the instrumentalities of 
freedom, free speech, free press, freo assemblages of tho people, a free ballot-box under which executive officers 
mul legislators aro elected to make laws and execute the lawk so made, and those only. 

Such governments repudiate the idea of coercion and a-nns, relying only on the coercion of law and of publio 
•pinion. This is tho only coercion rightfully to bo exercised iu a government founded like ours on the consetvt 
©tithe governed. 

Vallandigham here propounds the Fourierite and Utopian idea of a government based 
©a. moral suasion without the nse of force. Because our Government is founded on the. 
consent of the governed, he infers that it must govern only with the consent of the dia^ 
obedient. But while our written constitutions and our universal suffrage and free elec- 
tions attest that our Government derives all its powers from the consent of the governed, 
our penal .laws, criminal courts, jails, penitentiaries, prisons and gallows equally show 
that one of the very powers which tho Government derives from the consent of the 
governed, is the power to coerce the disobedient and rebellious. 

WENTWORTIl's REPLY TO VALLANDIGHAM. 

Bon. John Wentworth, widely known as an olden-time Democrat of the days of Jack- 
son, now a supporter of the Administration, at the close of Viillandigham'a speech, 
addressed the following triumphant refutation of his heresies to the same audience. We' 
qriote from the Tribune report : 

But Vallandigham told you that the Government could never be held together by coercive force, that power 
brought to apply on the unruly could never reduce them to obedience. Was there ever a greater heresy utterod 
by tho mouth of man? No coercion I Why, gentlemen, the coercive power of Government is the only safety 
oud salvation of society. No government, no community can exist an hour without it. It was the weakness of 
the Articles of the Old Confederation that they conferred no coercive power, and the statesmen of that day saw , 
the pressing necessity of the new Constitution. Take to-day from municipal and governmental organization 
the power of coercion, and society goes at once into anarchy and chaos. The weak would become the immediate 
prey of tho strong, and might would indeed become right. I have been told that there are those who would 
oartmb the quiet of the gathering in this city. We, the nluttiorities of the city, coerce them into respect for 
law Surely you would not donounc*' coercion. That glorious old war-horse of Democracy 1 , General Jackson, 
from whose lips I inhaled the pure inspiration of Democracy, and at whoso feet I received the first lessons of 
political and governmental duty, was gloriously free from this modern heresy. His celebruted proclamation 



against the milliners, in which " coercion" gleamed and glistened in every line, will give him n name and an 
immortality in history, when the maligners and denunciators of his policy shall have been forgotten. I there- 
fore stand for General Jackson and against Vallandigham. Will you 6tand for Vallaudigham und against 
General Jackson ? 

Compare Vallandigham's language with Art. 1, Sec. 8, of the Constitution of tWe 
United States, authorizing the Government " to raise and support armies," and "to pro- 
vide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the Union, suppress insurreclionfij 
and repel invasions." Would he suppress a rebellion by an opinion? 

Vallandigham continues : 

Much more is this true of a federative system. States leagued and united together to make one common gov- 
ernment made by independent sovereignties who have delegated certainportions of their power to their common 
agent for the purpose of their common good. For three fourth.- of a century such a Government existed in lh/» 
United States, and still survives on parchment, but not in reality. Three years ago a party whose distinctive 
motto was free speech, a free press, and tree men. obtained power in this land. Soon after a civil war broke out, 
and they began immediately to depart from the idea of a coercion of opinion or coercion of law, and resorted to 
a coercion of force. ; first, as against States, contrary to the very idea upon which our Federal Union was founded, 
and in derogation of the fundamental principles of all free government. Next — and naturally as a legitimate 
consequence of the first violation — those who obtained power through your suffrages began the coercion of forc» 
against those who still adhered to the Government and recognized them as agents of it. 

Vallandigham here says the war broke out after Mr. Lincoln obtained power. Com- 
pare with this the following statement from the southern history of the war, written try 
Pollard, editor of the Richmond Examiner, a good " Democratic" authority : 

On the intoming of the Administration of Abraham Lincoln on the 4th of March, the rival Government of the 
South had perfected its organization; Fort Moultrie and Castle Pinckney had been captured by the South Caro- 
lina troops ; Fort Pulaski, the defense of Savannah, had been taken; the arsenal at Mount Vernon, Alabama, 
with 20,000 stand of arms, had been seized by the Alabama troops : Fort Morgan, in N obile Bay, had been taken ; 
Forte Jackson, St. Philip, and Pike, New Orleans, had been captured by the Louisiana troops; the Pcusaqohi 
navy-yard and Forts Barrancas and Mcltea had been taken, and theseige of Fort Pickens commenced ; tle> Baron 
Rouge Arsenal had been surrendered to the Louisiana troops; the New Orleans Mint and custom-house had been 
taken; the Little Rock Arsenal had been seized by the Arkansas troops; and on the 16th of February, General 
Twiggs had transferred the public property in Tex;is to the State authorities. 

Vallandigham asks : 

What was the condition of the country in the beginning of his (Lincoln's) Administration. Contrast it with 
the condition of things uo\y. Theu we had peace, no\y cruel war; then Union with all its blessings, now die- 
onion with all Its horrors; then the Constitution maintained which our fathers pronounced, and we in our day 
and generation, too, as the consummation of human wisdom ; tiiat Constitution now lies prostrate under -the 
heels of despotic power. 

Yes, " What was the condition of the country" when committed to the Administration 
of Mr. Lincoln? It was rend in twain. by the party to which Vallandigham belongs. 

Mr. Lincoln found two governments in full blast; Buchanan at the head of one and 
Davis at the head of the other. lie found two Constitutions in force, the Federal and 
Confederate. He found eight States fully seceded, three more almost out, and two more 
preparing to follow the eleven elopers. He found half the territory of thai United States 
in the hands of the Confederates, with their Capital established at Montgomery. lie 
found this insurgent Government busy organizing an army and a navy, building forts, 
drilling troops, and collecting taxes. He found the armories and arsenals of the Federal 
Government plundered of their contents, and the Treasury robbed of its last dollar. 
When Mr. Lincoln took the oath of office, the "' Democratic party" had scuttled and plun- 
dered the ship of State. The Union was dissolved as far as it was in the power of that 
party to dissolve it. When he entered the White House he f>und awaiting hini three 
plenipotentiaries from Jeff. Davis to negotiate a commercial treaty in behalf of the 
"Southern Confederacy!" They did not deign to ask for recognition of rebel indepjtad- 
ence. They considered that already settled. Such was the Union wm-k of this " glorfcus 
Democratic" party; and now the leaders of the Northern wing ask to be restored to 
power, in order that they may complete their scheme of disunion by establishing a Jf iji'th- 
western Confederacy on the ruins of the old Union. 

Vallandigham, with sublime impudence, actually arraigns the President for not hav- 
ing, agaiiist this most active resistance, restored the Union : 

I speak freely of the President as one who asks me for my vote. I tell him no, you have not discharged th* 
ftury for which you were elected. You have not so administered the Government as to advance its prosperity. 
You have not, as you promised us, restored the Union of these States, preserved the Constitution given into your 
hands for keeping. \\ hose fault is ii? 

It is the fault of James Buchanan and the " Democratic party" who during the first five 
months of the rebellion assisted it by every means in their power, stripping the North of 
120.000 stand of arms to send to the rebels, and denying that the Government had any 
right but to submit to be coerced by rebels into its own dissolution and destruction. 

Vallandigham wants the war stopped : 

If you would have peace, abandon that idea of coercion, come back again to compromise and conciliation; 
instead of war let us have reason, argument, deliberation; let us have the assemblage of a convention of l,he 
States to consider this great question. Instead of the experiment of war let us have the experiment of peiwe. 
From military appliances let us look to the arts of peace, and the acquirements of statesmanship. Through 
these alone will you reach the highway of public prosperity. 

How is peace to be secured except by conquering the rebellion ? Before a convention 



6 

there mnst be an armistice. But Vallandigham did not inform his audience bow the 
armistice is to be brought about, nor bow a convention is to be legally constituted with- 
out the concurrence of tbe States in rebellion. Does he propose to withdraw all our 
forces from the field now that, after a hard and exhausting campaign, they stand on the 
very margin of final success? Does he propose that we shall abandon Kentucky, Mis- 
souri, Tennessee, Northern Arkansas, Louisiana, West Virginia, Maryland, Delaware ? 
Must we surrender back to the hands of the very men from whose bloody gripe they have 
Just been rescued, Vicksburg, Port Hudson, Port Royal, Norfolk, Fortress Monroe, Forts 
8t. Philip. Morgan, Gaines, Koanoke, Donelson, Island No. 10, Memphis, St. Louis, Lou- 
isville, Wheeling, New Orleans, Baltimore, Nashville, Atlanta, and Washington — in short, 
all places and territory south of Mason and Dixon's line? Mnst our fleets be withdrawn 
and the blockade raised in order that tbe rebels may sell their cotton and prepare them- 
selves for a renewal of the war ? 

Must Sherman retrace the five hundred miles of his advance, and thus admit that a 
campaign as arduous and brilliant as any on record has been after all but a fool'3 errand? 
Must Grant, after losing fifty thousand men in winning his hold of Richmond, send his 
noble soldiers back to Washington, in order to have it all to do over again in the course 
of a few months ? Yet this is what an armistice implies ; this is what the rebfl writers 
with one accord demand; this is what their authorities make the single condition. Jeff. 
Davis declared, in the most emphatic manner, to Colonel Jacques, that he would not con- 
sent to negotiate until tee independence of the Confederacy had been recognized. 

vallandigham's plan for restoring the union. 

I believe it possible to rebuild the edifice so that it shall be grander, more glorious, and more powerful than 
even as our fathers erected it. [Cheers.] 

What Vallandigham regarded as a grander and more glorious Union than that which 
our fathers erected, we may infer from his plan proposed in 1860, of dividing the Union 
Into four sections : the States east of and including Pennsylvania to form one section, 
*' Tbe North ; " the States thence west to the Rocky Mountains to form another, " The 
West ; " the slave States to form '• The South," and the Pacific States to form the Pacific 
section. Each of these sections should vote separately, and the vote of all should be 
necessary to any act or election. This would be a practical dissolution of the Union into 
four confederacies. It was Calhoun's plan for enabling the minority to rule the majority. 
senator Richardson's slanders. 

Senator Richardson, of Illinois, spoke at Bryan Hall on Friday evening, August 26th. 
We extract from the Times the following : 

To re-elect Mr. Lincoln is to accept four j'ears more of war, four years more of trouble, of disaster, of woe, of 
lamentations, of ftiin to the country. [Applause.] To defeat Mr. Lincoln, to accept the nominee of the Chicago 
Convention [cheers] is to bring peace and harmony and concord and union to these States. [Loud applause.] 

But these Republicans say they would be very much disgraced if they were to propose terms of settlement 
with rebels with arms in their hands. These people with arms in their hands are the very 
people I want to settle -with. I ant not afraid of a man if lie has no arm*. 

RICHARDSON CALLS OUR SOLDIERS HIRELING HESSIANS. 

Fellow-citizens, I ask you to turn back in history and tell me where it was that ever hired soldiers conquered 
ttpeace. When the Goth and Vandal overran Home, and the people turned out from motives of patriotism and 
love of country, they drove them back. For a hundred years the Goth and Vandal attempted to overrun Rome. 
But after a while the people became enervated, and they hired, as we are hiring now, the soldier to fight their 
battles, and they were conquered. I might run this parallel through history, but I will give but one other 
example. During the American Revolution, when the people of England desired to prevent this country from 
separating from them, and when they turned out their own people into the army they took Boston, New York, 
Philadelphia, Baltimore, Charleston, the Chesapeake, and in fact the entire coast. But when the feeling changed 
towards us, and the King of England was compelled to hire Hessians to come hero and fight us, we whipped 
them. You cannot win victories with hired soldiers. They must be moved by a higher motive and purer 
patriotism than the mere love of the dollar they receive for their sorvices. 

The gallant and patriotic soldiers of the Union are here defamed as "hireling Hes- 
sians;" their defeat predicted and desired, and the triumph of the rebels taken for 
granted. " Out of the fullness of the heart the mouth speaketh." At the vey moment 
this old rebel sympathizer was proc aiming that the rebellion could not be subdued, one- 
half of it had been crushed, and the residue was tottering, notwithstanding the aid and 
comfort given to the insurgents by such men as the speaker. 

DKWITT, OF NEW YORK, STIGMATISES THE BRAVE POTOMAC ARMY. 

Mr. Dewitt, of New York, addressed a crowd from the balcony of tbe Sherman House : 

Speaking of the achievements of our armies, the speaker said, when that grand army that had crossed th 9 
Eapidan under Gen. Grant had failed, what could bo expected of an army of conscripts, hirelings and negroes? 
[Cheers and cries of "Nothing."] Men taken from new emigrants just arrived upon our soii ; men torn un- 
willingly from their homes and forced into the ranks, and untutored Africans — these were the men before Rich- 
mond and Petersburg, and what could bo expected of them, when a grand army of chosen men had failed to 
accomplish good. 

A HISSING REPTILE. 

8. S. Cox, who is known to be the most intimate and confidential friend of Geo. B. 



McClellan, among political men, and next to Belmont, the leading wire-puller for 
his nomination, made the following speech, as reported in the Chicago Times: 

Senator Cox being introduced, said ho did not want to use any harsh language towards Old Abe. [Cries of 
" give it to him."] He had attempted in his own city, a few weeks since, to show, in a very quiet way, thai 
Abraham Lincoln had deluged the country with blood, created a debt of four thousand millions of dollars, 
sacrificed two millions of human lives, and filled the land with grief and mourning. 

A pious man, who had listened attentively to his remarks, sang out, " G — d d n him." 

He did not agree with his pious friend. He hoped God would have mercy on Abraham Lincoln, but at the 
November election the people would damn him to immortal infamy. [Immense cheering.] 

One of our friends, Judge Hall, had been arrested iu Missouri a short time since, because he happened to say 
that Jefferson Davis was no greater enemy to the Constitution than Lincoln. He (the speaker) would say it 
boldly; let them arrest him. [Cheers and cries, "they dare not."] 

The speaker concluded by recapitulating the infamous actions of the President; showed how he had exercised 
fraud to overpower and defeat the purposes of loyal people, and said Republicans, Wade and Davis, not Demo- 
crate, were his accusers. He exhorted the people to join in the grand determination to remove the despot front 
the place which he was unfit to fill. 

The report of the Chicago Tribune adds the following : 

For less offenses than Mr. Lincoln had been guilty of, the English people had chopped off the head of the first 
Charles. In his opinion, Lincoln and Davis ought to be brought to the same block together. The other day 
they arrested a friend of his, a member of Congress from Missouri, for saying, in private conversation, that 
Lincoln was no better than Jeff. Davis. He was ready to say the same now here in Chicago. Let the minions 
of the Administration object if they dare. 

He asked, did they want the whole country mortgaged for the freedom of the negro 1 

He would be entirely willing to mortgage the whole country to pay Jeff. Davis's debt 
incurred in securing the slavery of the negro. 
If this war was to continue four years longer, where would we bring npT 

He might have asked, if this war should continue one year longer, where would the 
Rebels bring up? 

STAMBAUGH PREFERS DISUNION TO THE FREEDOM OF SLATES. 

Mr. Stambaugh, a delegate from Ohio, said, "that if he was called upon to elect between the freedom of the 
lugger and disunion and separation, he should choose the latter. [Cheers.] Bayonets and cannon, and 
above all, negro emancipation, cannot conquer a permanent peace." His plan for the solution of these difficulties 
was an armistice, and an arrangement for a joint convention, in which to talk over and arrange all family 
grievances. He was certain that in Ohio the entire community were in favor of peace. 

HE ADVOCATES REPUDIATION. 

One reason why tire Democrats should support the candidate of the Convention, whoever ho might be, was, 
that they might search hell over and they could not find a worse President than Abraham Lincoln. When this 
war is over, he would not give a pinch of snuff for the 5.20s and the 10.40s now hoarded by the rich. 

JUDGE ALEXANDER WANTS AN ARMISTICE. 

Judge Alexander, of Kentucky, was then introduced. After a few introductory remarks, he said, " was the 
Constitution to be restored by the party in power? [Cries of 'No, no.'] Was it to be restored by a continuance 
of the war? [Cries of ' No.'] Since they could not do it by shedding blood, he would ask, how were they t* 
obtain peace ? They had tried the bayonet and failed, and they would now try the ballot, because with it they 
would drive out Lincoln and his minions. In order to 6top the war they must have an armistice, to be followed 
by a convention of all the States. No war had ever been settled except by compromise, from the time which 
Moses fought the Amalekites down to the present day. If they did not believe this, then they must believe that 
the physical powers were superior to the mental powers, and if such were the case, then they had bettor leave 
the abode of civilization and go forth to the wild prairies to live. [Cheers.] He could tell them that Kentucky 
would stand by the nominee of the Convention. [Loud and prolonged cheering.] He felt assured that the 
proper platform would be submitted, and would contain a plan for an armistice and a convention of States. 
Then their grief and sorrows would pass away, and the people would cry 'Let us have peace.'" [Cheers.] Hs 
concluded by relating a couple of anecdotes which created much laughter. One of them had reference to the 
opinion of a Kentucky gentleman who thought that as Mr. Lincoln was so fond of the negro, he should have one 
of the slain ones skinned and made into a pair of moccasins for his daily wear. 

COL. CARR ON BUCHANAN AND LINCOLN. 

Col. Carr was then introduced. Ho said he considered this one of the proudest days in American history. 
Between three and four years ago the. Republican party had met to nominate a person for President, and 
selected a citizen of Illinois. It was not the first time a king had been deposed and a fool put in his place. Ib 
former times, kings had kept fools to keep from wearying, but this was the first country that had elected a fool 
to reign over it. [Cheers and laughter.] 

Saturday, August 27. 
The Chicago Times says, of the meetings held on Saturday evening, which were largely 
attended as well by the peace sympathizers and "plug uglies " of the whole country, 
as by those curious to hear what the friends of peace with the rebels, and war with the 
Government, had to say: 

The demonstration last night was not a meeting merely ; it was a whole constellation of meetings. The grand 
centre of the city — Randolph, Clark, Washington, and La Salle streets, in the vicinity of the Court House — 
and the Court House Square, presented one A>lid mass of human beings. And these were independent of the 
crowds that had assembled in other parts of the city — in the Democratic Invincible Club Hall, in Bryan Hall, 
and in the remote streets. From 7 until 10 o'clock, there were continual, unbroken columns pouring from all 
directions towards the Court House, and the adjacent thoroughfares. 

During the entire evening there were, at all times, five speakers holding forth to thousands of assembled 
citizens, and almost within the sound of each other's voices. The number of people composing the grand nucleus 
of the entire assemblage, was at no time during the evening estimated at less than forty thousand, oven by the 
most scrupulous. 



THH OLD TIIK.EAT. 

Hoa. H. S. Orton, of Wisconsin, repeats the old Southern threat — " Elect ug or well! 
jpKi you : " 

Tho fanaticism of the North conjoined with the fanaticism of the -South has run its course, and it is for \\s, th« 
•onservative masses of the United States, to say whether it shall longer prevail, or whether the Government, 
the Constitution and the Union shall be preserved and resume their sway. On this Convention and the one to 
follow it, hangs the fate of this great Republic. Bear it in mind and recollect it well and solemnly that on thes« 
Conventions rests the fate of this Union. And what is involved in that? To an American everything — life, 
psOperty, all the endearments of home and society — -everything tiiat Americans hold dear. 

In Wisconsin Lincoln has no party left, except himself and his officers and satraps — that is all there is left of 
fhem. I pledge you my word it is all that is loft in the State of Wisconsin — the collectors of tho revenue, th« 
assessors and their dependents, are all the strength that Abe Lincoln has in these free States. And they are to 
rule over us. Are you going to submit to it ? [Cries of " No."] 

Like Mark Antony over the dead body of C;«sa!r he " would not stir up their minds and 
hearts to sudden mutiny : " 

I do not countenance forcible resistance to any law. I am an advocate of law. In 1860, I did not have thw 
fconor to vote for that great and good man whose spirit now rests in God, Mr. Douglas [Cheers]; but I voted for 
Bell and Everett, and to-day I don't know which of them is the best off. Bell has gone over to tho secessionist*;, 
and Everett has gone over to the abolitionists, and I am without candidates to-day, and I don't know which of 
Uumi has gone into the worst company. [Laughter and cheerB.] 

Neither he nor the South will return to the old Union if slavery is destroyed : 

Ton want the Constitution, the rights of the States, and a return of the old Union. Where, is the old Union ? 
A schoolboy's tale, the wonder of an hour! Wo want a return to it with the Constitution, but not otherwise. 
After every right established by our fathers was broken down and destroyed wouJd I return to it ? Or would! 
the South return to it? 

Resistance to the draft will save slavery — gave the South — and set the sun, moon and 
stars back to the firmament once more. » 

Now is the time to return to the right path. Under the pressure of the draft — and God bless the draft, it i# 
the best argument that lias ever been addressed to the American people. It proves that we have touched bot- 
tom, we have got a realizing sense that wu have got nearly to the last ditch, the last man, and the last dollar. 
Under the pressure of the time stop and save your Government ; for if it is gone now it is gone forever, and ther» 

ia future of darkness and gloom. Tho stars of heaven are blotted out, the moon will refuse to shine, the sun 
11 rise no more in the fair lirmamont of the American Republic 1 

WHAT TOUNG MOREI9 KETCHUM SAID. 

Young Ketchum of New York, son of the pro-slavery banker, had no confidence in 
Democratic principles or professions, and said : 

Now, gentlemen, we want our man for two reasons. In the first place the people of the city of New York art 
mck of platforms. We have not had a platform for eight years given to us by either side which has been main- 
tained after its adoption. And though we approve of the motto, " principles, not men," yet we feel that we havo 
been so often deceived that we now want a man who shall lnt a principle in himself, and whose principles we are 
wiping tq support. We want to elect a man who will say to the South, " Come back, we will restore to you every 
Constitutional privilege, every guarantee that you ever possessed; your rights shall no longer be invaded; w» 
vfill wipe out the emancipation proclamation; we will sweep away this confiscation act; all that \p$ ask of you L* 
to come back and live with us on the old terms. We are lx>th tired and weary, and want to live together again.'? 

But suppose the rebels refuse to come back on any terms — they have a million times 
declared they never would voluntarily return. What then ? Has all the fighting to be 
done oyer again? Young Ketchum was candid enough to state the consequence of allow- 
ing the Union to be divided. He said : 

"This Union must and shall be preserved." God Almighty set the seal of Union on this land when ho poured 
tihe mighty waters of that great river through this valley of the Mississippi down to the Gulf of Mexic». Thi* 
was his seal that the land should never bo divided. You may separate tu-morrow and recognize them as an inde- 
pendent nation, but let me tell you that before five or ten years have rolled over your heads, you would have th» 
tamo war, bloody, bitter, and everlasting as now. 

This is what Ketchum said. Now listen to what Jeff. Davis saya. In his late conversa- 
tion with Col. Jacques and James R. Gilmore, he said : 

I tried all in my power to avert this war. I saw it coming, and for twelve years [it was not Lincoln 
then, that caused the wnr,] I worked night and day to prevent it, but I could not. Tho North was mad and 
olind; it would not let us govern ourselves, and so the war came, and now it must go on, till the last man, 
of thiH generation falls in his track, and his children seize his musket and tight his battles, unless you acknowl- 
edge our rights of self-government. We are not flgnting for slavery. We are fighting for 
independence—and that or extermination we will Lave. 

What good will "wiping out the emancipation proclamation," and "sweeping away 
the confiscation act" effect towards a restoration of the Union? 

But tell me, said Davis, are the terms you have named — emancipation, no confiscation, and universal amnesty — 
the terms which Mr. Lincoln authorized you to offer tis? 

No, sir ; replied Col. Jacques, Mr. Lincoln did not authorize me to offer yon any terms. But I think both he 
and the Northern people, for the sake of peace, would assent to some such conditions. 

But, replied Mr. Davis, amnesty, sir, applies to criminals. We have committed no crime. Confiscation is of no 
account unless you can enforce it. And emancipation! You havnalready emancipated nearly a million of our 
■hweB — and if you will take care of them, you may emancipate the rast I had a few when the war 
began. 1 was of some use to them; they never were of any to me. Against their will you emancipated them, 
and you may emancipate every negro in the Confederacy, but we will be free ! We will 
govern ourselves. We will do it if we have to see every Southern plantation sacked, and every Southern city 
in flames. 

Well, sir. said Col. Jacques, be that as it may, if I understand you, the dispute between your Government and 
curs is narrowed down to this : Union or disunion. 



Tee; or to put It otherwise : independence or subjugation. 

Theu the two Governments are irreconcilably apart. Thoy have no altornatiTe but to fight it out. 

BITTER DENUNCIATION OF THE PRESIDENT ENCOURAGEMENT TO REBELS. 

Mr. Romeyn, of New York, Baid : 

Mr. Lincoln has violated the rights of the States and the sacred rights of man. He proposes to liberate tbi 
Slaves of the South and turn them upon the North to live in idleness- and vacancy, and become paupers and 
burdens to society. He refuses t<> allow the Southern States their constitutional rights even if they returned 
to the Union. The South will never submit to such terms, nor would the North under similar circumstances. 

What constitutional right did the " South " not enjoy before secession ? Is it a viola- 
tion of the rights of the States for the President to enforce the Constitution and the laws ? 

REED OPPOSES THE DRAFT. 

Hon. James H. Reed, of Indiana, opposes the draft: 

He advocates the policy of making an immediate call upon the President to withhold th>? order for this draft. 
If a refusal came to such an appeal, then would the President be damned to eternal infamy, and, if the draft 
should be so .suspended, then the j.eople voting upon it would, by ten lo one, declare against it. The will of the 
people is declared lor peace, and, in this declaration there is nothing tending to lolly, inasmuch as in the coming 
election they intend to oust the incumbents of office, and to inaugurate a rule which will bring peace and pro»- 
rwrity once more to this land. 

Reed says the rebels are not rebels, but have already established their independence : 

No longer could we term the war a war of rebellion. Treated as belligerents, with the courtesies of a publie 
enemy, the people of the South have ce.ised to be in arms as rebels, and liav ■> established themselves as a gov- 
ernment. To maintain the power thus established, unless a course of conciliation were opened to, them, thev 
would exert every effort. 

The Chicago Times thus introduces its report of Rynders' speech : 

THE INVINCIBLE CLUB. 

At an early hour in the evening the hall of the Democratic Invincible Club, corner of Clark and Monroe street?, 
was filled with a most enthusiastic audience to listen to an address on the great (juestions of the day by Captain 
Isaiah Rynders. the well-known President of the Empire Democratic Club of New York. 

This Club composed of the New York fighting men and " shoulder-hitters," was organ- 
ized to decide who should speak and vote. Before the Metro >olitan Poliee existed in New 
York, its business was to bully moderate citizens away from the polls, to enable paid 
voters to "vote early and often," to send reinforcements of voters to weak points of the 
Democratic line, whether in Maine, Connecticut, or Pennsylvania. It not only prevented 
Garrison and Phillips from speaking in New York city, but shut the mouths of bolting 
Democrats, and exercised a jfeneral mob censorship over free speech. For these services 
Buchanan made him United States Marshal, or slave catcher, for the Southern District of 
New York. He performed the duties of his office to the satisfaction of the Administra- 
tion, by conniving at if not personally assisting in the very active slave trade then being 
carried on by " Democratic" slave merchants in the city of New York, between the Afri- 
can coast and Charleston. 

The chairman of the Invincible Club introduced him in the following terms; 
He hud now much pleasure in introducing to the meeting Captain Isaiah Rynders, [cheers] — a gentleman who 
had done such good service in the cause of Democracy. [Loud Applause.] 

Captain Rynders, forgetting his old trade of driving public speakers from their plat- 
forms, now favors free speech : 

A great crisis existed, and the Democratic party had been called once more to save the country from the im" 
pending danger that now threatened it, and they would do it. [Loud cheers.] He had heard at that meeting an 
allusion to the people of the South, and he would take the opportunity of stating that it was his intention toinak* 
a free speech this evening, for he was in the land of Douglas. [Great applause.] 

DENIES THAT THE REBELS ARE TRAITORS. 
After three years of despotism he stood before them a free man — before a free people. With reference to the 
remark which he had just referred to. he would now speak after the digression he had just made. It was a re- 
mark he did not approve of. He had heard one of the speakers state that the people of the South were traitors, 
which were harsh words, as the people of the South were as brave and chivalrous a people as were ever put on 
this earth. [Cheers.] He had regretted that they took the step thoy did for the settlement of their grievance*, 
for they had great grievances. Ho was sorry they took these steps, and his advice was to stay in the Democratic 
party, and they would right their grievances. They, however, seemed to think differently, and he was sorry foi' 
it. Never had one word come from his lips against them, and he hoped his lips would be sealed when he did in- 
justice to a brave, noble, and chivalrous people. [Applause.] 

SUFFERING BRETHREN IN CAMP DOUGLAS. ' 

The abolitionists now thought more of the colored man than the free white man of the East. They could 
not see the white man suffering from want and destitution, but they have to look to the colored man of Alabama 
and Louisiana. They could see them, but not the misery of the wliite man. They could not look to Camp Doug- 
las nor to Fort Lafayette, and see white men languishing in bondage. [Cheers.] They have no sympathies for 
these men, because, in the celebrated language of the clergyman at Beaufort. " he invariably has ii white skin." 

He next alluded in withering terms to Lincoln's apology to the Emperor Napoleon relative to the resolution 
which passed the House of Representatives regarding the carrying out of the Monroe doctrine. 

Rynders was not then aware that the Democracy had already been passed over to Bel- 
mont, the Rothschilds, and the o her holders, not only of Jeff. Davis s debt, but of Maxi- 
milian's, and that their platform would repudiate the Monroe doctrine altogether. 



10 

Monday, August 29. 
The Convention was called to order by August. Belmont, Chairman of the National Dem- 
ocratic Committee, financial agent of the Rothschilds, and the representative, in that ca- 
pacity, of the Confederate debt. He represents the money that pays the rebel armies. Ho 
said : 

In your hands rests, under the ruling of an all-wise Providence, the future of this Republic. Four years of 
misrule, by a sectional, fanatical, and corrupt party have brought our country to the very verge of ruin. 

Where he says " country," the people will of course read "rebellion and Confederate 
bonds:" 

The past and present are sufficient warning of the disastrous consequences which would befall us if Mr. Lin- 
coln's re-election should be made possible by our want of patriotism and unity. The inevitable results of such a 
calamity must be the utter disintegration of our whole political and social system, amidst bloodshed and anarchy, 
with the great problems of liberal progress and self-government jeopardized for generations to come. 

He thinks the cause of the rebellion was the failure of the northern Democrats to agree 
wilh their southern brethren. 

Let us at the very outset of our proceedings bear in mind that the dissentions of the last Democratic Conven- 
▼ention was one of the principal causes which gave the reins of government into the hands of our opponents, and. 
let us beware not to tall again into the same fatal error. 

He tells them to sacrifice all their honest convictions, if they have any, but says nothing 
about "Confederate bonds." 

We must bring at the altar of our country the sacrifice of our prejudices, opinions, and convictions, however 
dear and long cherished they may be, from the moment they threaten tho harmony and unity of action so indis- 
pensable to tfur success. 

He nominated for temporary chairman, Mr. Buchanan's shadow, and the defender of the 
rights of the rebellion and anti-coercionism in the Senate of 1860 — Hon. William Bigler, 
of Pennsylvania. 

He said: , 

The termination of Democratic rule in this country was the end of peaceful relations between the States and 
the people. 

In other words, when the Democratic party, though grown so sectional that it could 
hardly carry a single free Stute, still carried the general election, the Republican party 
submitted. But when the Democratic party was beaten, it rebelled, and went in for a 
free fight in every State which it controlled. Well may Democrats boast thai with the 
end of their power ended peace, if they themselves made the overthrow of their power a 
cause of rebellion. 

long's anti-draft resolution. 

Mr. Long, of Ohio, offered the following resolution: 

Rcsnlveil, That a committee composed of one member from each State represented in this Convention, to be 
selected by the respective delegations thereof, be appointed for the purpose of proceeding forthwith to I he city of 
Washington, and, on behalf of this Convention and the people, to ask Mr.Lincoln to suspend the operation of the 
pending draft for 500,000 more men until the people shall have an opportunity, through the ballot-box in a free 
election — uninfluenced in any manner by military orders or military interference— t-of, deciding the question, now 
fairly presented to them, of war or peace, at the approaching election in November; and that said committee be 
and they are hereby instructed to urge upon Mr. Lincoln, by whatever argument they can employ, to stay 
the flow of fraternal blood, at least so far as the pending draft will continue to augment it, until the people, the 
source of all power, shall have an opportunity of expressing their will for or against the further prosecution of the 
war in the choice of candidates for the Presidency. 

Which was referred to the Committee on Resolutions. 

The Convention having previously determined to nominate Gen. McClellan fir Presi- 
dent, who is the father to the idea of filling our armies by conscription, dared not say any- 
thing in their platform on the subject. The above resolution was therefore smothered, 
and the question dodged. 

The following extract feebly shows how exclusively Vallandigham was the hero of the 
Convention. He could not even rise in his seat without being greeted by the shouts of 
his peace worshippers. 

Mr. Vallandigham rose, and was greeted with loud and prolonged cheering, and cries "Take the platform." He 
finally stepped to the platform, and merely gave notice that the Committee on Resolutions would meet in the 
evening at 8 o'clock, at the rooms of the New York delegation in the Sherman House. [Immonse cheering.] 

The Convention then adjourned until 10 o'clock following morning. 

We quote from the addresses delivered during the evening in front of the Sherman House. 
Hon. W. W. O'Brien, of Peoria, proposes to try Lincoln and hang him. 

Mr. O'Brien accused the administration of attempting to gag the press, putting down trial by jury, and sus- 
pending the writ of halteas corpus. But when Abraham Lincoln retired from the Presidential chair they would 
renew trial by jury, and try him for the offences he had committed against the laws and the Constitution. He 
would be provided with counsel, and protected by good democratic lawyers. [Cheers.] They would try him as 
Charles I was tried in England, and the verdict q( the jury might be the same, that he had been found guilty of 
being a tyrant and a traitor. Whatever they would do would be under the law, and if they found him guilty 
they would find men to carry out the law. [Cheers.] 

Tomorrow they were going down to the Convention to nominate a true Democrat, who, on the 4th of March, 
would apply his boot to "Old Abe's posterior" and kick him out of the Presidential chair. [Great laughter.] 
They were going to make a platform, and if George B. McClellan — [enthusiastic cheering, again and again 
resumed] — or any other gentleman was ready to stand on it, he would be nominated aud elected, for they were 



11 

to be all united. The South would then join hands, and the glorious Union would again be restored. [Cheers.] 
[Loud cries for Mr. Vallandigham and Governor Seymour were only silenced by the statement that those gen- 
tlemen were both enguged in constructing the platform.] 

Mr. Van Alleu would not fight to put down the rebellion, but is ready to fight the 
Government. 

Mr. John J. Van Allen, of Tew York, next gave voice for peace. As for the peace sentiment, ho proclaimed, 
Let her run. War is disunion. War could never produce peace. It was impossible to subjugate eight millions 
of people, and it ought not to be done if it could be done. It would require another Government to do it. Let 
us have a platform clear on this issue. It is the only one we can all stand upon — it is the only one that can 
take us out of the difficulties that surround us. But it will require something more than talking, lie would 
not fight in this war, but if necessary to assert the principles of the Constitution, ho was a fighting man. It 
seemed to his mind, that the people of this country had been mad the last four years. The great mist tko was 
that the Democracy did not resist the war from the beginning. She would retrace her steps, and finally 
triumph. lie would not have a candidate WITH THE SMELL OF WAR ON HIS GARMENTS. 

mr. allen's admission. 

Another report contains the following: 

I do not want a man nominated whose nomination will oblige me when I mako a two hour's speech, to spend 
one hour and a half in explanations. We propose to go to the country on definite charges against the party 
In power. One of these is "arbitrary arrests." George B. McClellan ordered the most high-handed one that 
has been made since the war began. We propose to go to the country on the charge of suspension of the writ 
of habeas corpus. This was recommended by George B. McClellan. We propose to go into the campaign bear- 
ing the olive branch of peace. George B. McClellan recommended drafting soldiers, and still wears Abe Lincoln's 
shoulder straps, and since being relieved from active service to which he would gladly return, he said at West 
Point, that too much blood had been shed, too much treasure expended, to stop the war now. With him we 
can make no point on the disturbance of the social relations of the country. With him we must drop the doc- 
trine of State sovereignty. For two years he labored to coerce States. IN FACT, GENTLEMEN, TUB NOMI- 
NATION of geor<;eb. mcclellan, quashes the entire indictment which we have drawn 

AGAINST THE ADMINISTRATION. [Great cheering.] 

Hon. Mr. Curtis, of New York, said: 

I trust the day will never come when the scenes witnessed in the Commonwealth of Kentucky — a State ren- 
dered glorious by the associations of the past — will be enacted on this soil — when the Administration will 
endeavor by force of arms to interfere with the free sentiment and free will of the people. But if that day 
should come, before God and in sight of Heaven, I would invoke the aid of counter revolution. [Loud cheering.] 
A people who would submit to that degree of outrage and tyranny which destroys the charter of their liberties— 
(to wit, to be required to swear allegiance to the United States before voting in a State claimed to belong to the 
confederacy) — are not fitted to live and stand up as men but should lie down and die as slaves. [Cheers, and 
cries of "Good."] I warn the Government now in power not to trample too far upon the liberties which are 
left to us ; for if they do, they will be swept before a storm as a ship is swept from the sea in a storm. [Cheers.] 

John Fuller, of Michigan, characterizes the war for the Union as 

This unholy, cruel, and abominable struggle. [Loud cheers.] Gentlemen, are you willing longer to submit to 
this state of things? [Cries of "No."] Our land is already wet with fraternal blood. Our press have been 
shackled, the liberty of speech has been suppressed, the writ of habeas corpus has been suspended, and he 
who dared to raise his voice against these arbitrary and unconstitutional acts has been arrested by the minions 
of the Government, and incarcerated in dungeons or banished from his native land. [Cheers.] Are you willing, 
I again ssk, to bear these hardships and to submit to this tyranny and oppression? [Renew cries of "No, no!"] 
Are yon willing to follow in the footsteps of Abraham Lincoln, the perjured wretch who has violated the oath 
he took before high heaven to support the Constitution and preserve the liberties of tho people? [Cheers.] 

Mr. 6. C. Sanderson says, the Union cannot be restored by war. 

Fellow-citizens, what say you? Is it not time that this infernal war should stop? [Voices — "Yes."] nas 
not there been blood enough shed? Has there not been property enough destroyed? Have we not all been 
bound, hand and foot, to the abolition car, that is rolling over our necks like tho wheels of another Juggernaut? 
We all love our country. There is nothing would rejoice US more than to see the stars and stripes, the glorious 
emblem of our Union, re-established all over this country, but it ought to bo done by concession nud compromise. 
[Applause. A voice — " That is the doctrine."] It must not be by a further shedding of blood, it cannot be. 
[ A voice — "It will never be done by blood."] Wo must have peace. Peace is our motive; nothing but peace. 
If the Southern Confederacy, by any possibility, be subjugated by the abolition administration, the next thing 
they would turn their bayonets on the free men of tho North and trample you in the dust. 

Hon. James H. Birch, of Missouri, thinks re-union may be impossible even by peace 
measures. 

His hopes and prayers were that such a union might evon yet be practicable, but if it be found to be other- 
wise—if the conflict of interest or of passion has been rendered really "irrepressible" by the iniquities of the 
party in power, and it shall be so adjudged by the same competent authority which ordained our present Consti- 
tution, let not tho blame of it be attached to the Democratic party. But if the country is doomed to become 
permanently divided, it will be recorded in history that it was not the fault of tho Doinocracy, whether in 
the inception or the prosecution of the measures which have led and are yet loading to so saddening an 
alternative. 

That's cool, after the Democracy have permanently destroyed the Union, they are not 
to be held responsible for it, but rather to be glorified for the deed I 

C. Chauncey Burr, a prominent New York Democrat, editor of " The Old Guard," 
prayed God that the rebels might never be subdued. 

In addressing the audience Mr. Burr spoke substantially as follows: He did not expect to make a speech as 
the time for speech-making was past. Argument was useless, and the time for action had come. He would 
speak with that freedom which had been the wont of the people of American for tho last three years. During that 
time, spies and informers had been on the track of the people, and, in point of fact, we had lived under a des- 
potism worse than that of Austria. The people had submitted to that despotism, not because of a want of 
courage, bravery, or pluck, but because they were a law-and-order people. They had patiently waited for a change 
in the policies of Lincoln's administration, but it had been denied them ; and for nearly four years they had 
submitted to these acts of despotism. And it was a wonder that they had a Cabinet and men who carriod out 
the infamous orders of the gorilla tyrant that usurped the Presidential chair. In New Jersey they had shifted 



12 

the responsibility of these, despotic acta to the shoulders of the Abolitionists, and more than one Provost Marshal 
had a hole made through his head. In that State, it was a difficult matter at one time to find an Abolitionist 
who would accept such a position, and the Administration had tried to bribe Democrats, but, thank God, they 
bad failed. But they had well nigh reached the end of their reign of despotism.' They could and should not go 
any further. They were about to lie swept from the land by an indignant people. They talked about a rebellion 
down South, but a greater rebellion had been in progress in the North. 

The question as to what should be done with thoso States had been asked a hundred times since ho came to 
Chicago. He could not answer the question. Those States did not belong to him. They did not belong te 
Lincoln. We had no right to burn their wheat fields, steal their pianoes. spoons or jewelry. Mr. Lincoln had 
stolen a good many thousand negroes, but for every negi^> he had thus stolen, he had stolen ten thou.-and spoons.. 
It had been said that if the South would lay down their arms, they would be received again into the Union. The 
Booth could not. honorably lay down her arms, for she was fighting for her honor. 

Two mil lions of men had been sent down to the slaughter pens of the South, and tke army of Lincoln could 
not again be filled, neither by enlistments or conscription. If he ever uttered a prayer, it was that no one of the 
States of the Union should be conquered and subjugated. They had tried for three years to whip th • seceding 
States back into the Union, but from the way the war had been conducted, they were more like to whip us. 

We were told that we would conquer the rebellious States. They could not be conquered, and he prayed God 
that they never might be. The Democratic party was for peace. Their Representatives had came to Chicago to 
nominate a candidate for the Presidency, lie would be nominated on a peace platform, and they could not suc- 
ceed on any other. If any other platform was adopted they deserved to be defeated. 

The eloquent speaker was frequently and vociferously applauded during hi* speech of hilf an hour or more. 

Tbe Chicago Times says of the following speech of Henry Clay Dean : 

ITis speech was one of peculiar bitterness, abounding with stubborn, irresistible, utcoufrovoYfible facte. It 
imp iited enthusiasm to the audience, and blistered the souls of the republicans who had the courage to listen to 
it to the end. 

REMARKS EY HENRY CLAY DEAN. 

He said in the presence of the face of Camp Douglas and all the satraps of Lincoln, that the American people 
Were ruled by felons. Lincoln had never turned a dishonest man out of office or kept an honest one in. [A 
toire — " What have you to say of Jeff Davis:'"] I have nothing to say about him. Lincoln iB engaged in a 
Controversy with him. and I never interfere between black dogs. [At this point in the sp 'aker's remark-, an Abo- 
lition rowdy shouted " Dry up. you old tory." when there was a cry to put hiiu out.] M*. Dean resumed: For 
over three years Lincoln had been calling for men, and they had been given. 13ut with all the vast armies 
placed at his command, be had f'ailrrl ! f.jilfil ! .' rAli.Kn'M KAI LIOI > ' '.'. ! Such a failure had never been known. 
Such destruction of human life had never been known since tho destruction of Sennacherib I. y the breath of 
the Almighty. And still the monster usurper wanted more 1 men for hi-, slaughter pens, [loud cries of "he shan't 
have more, j Wte careful husbandman, in deadening the forest was always carelul in preserving the young 
growth of timber, and in selecting his sw inc. for the slaughter (tout he preserves the younger ones for future use. 
Hut the tyrant and despot who ruled this people to destruction paid do regard to age or condition. He desired 
to double the widowhood and duplicate the orphans. He blushed that .such a felon should occupy the highest 
gift tit the people. Perjury and larceny were written over him as often as was •' on > dollar" on the, one dollar 
bill of the Hank of the State of Indiana. [' ries of the "Old villian."] The Democracy were for peace. The 
people were tor peace, but the contractors, and army officers and satraps of the Adaiinistration wanted it not. 
[Great applause.] Ever since the usurper, traitor, and tyrant had occupied the Presidential cl.air, V.w Republican 
party had shouted war to the knife, and the knife to the hilt. Blood had flown in torrents, and yet the thirst of 
tlieold monster w;ts not quenched. IDs cry was for more blood. 



Tuesday, Avr/ust 30 
Horatio Seymour having taken his Beat as permanent chairman, addressed the Conven- 
tion in language more guarded than that of many of the street speakers, but agreeing 
with them in venomous hate of the North, laying the blame of the war upon Northern 
Christianity, tinder the slang term, " fanati ism,'' ana upon Mr. Lincoln as the repre- 
sentative of the Northern people, and having no word of fault to find with secession, 
rebellion, the rebel army, or the Confederate Government. He said : 

They did not intend to destroy our country — they did not mean to break down its institutions. Cut unhappily 
thev were influenced by sectional prejudices" by fanaticism, by bigotry, and by intolerance, and we have found in 
the' course of the hist four years that their animating sentiments Lave overruled their declarations and their 
promises, and swept them'on, step by step, until they have been carried on to actions from which at the outset 
they would have shrunk away with horror. Even now, when war has desolated our land, has hud its heavy 
burdens upon labor, when bankruptcy and ruin overhang us. they will not have Union except, upon conditions 
unknown to our Constitution ; they wi'il not let the shedding of blood cease, even for a little time, to see it Chris- 
tian charity or the wisdom of statesmanship may not work out a method to save our country. Nay, more than 
this, they will not listen to aproposul for peace which does not offer that which this Government has no right 
to ask. 

Gov. Seymour, in his last remark, indicated that rebellion was no crime, involves no 
forfeiture of life or property, and that the " rights" of rebels are, to slaughter the de- 
fenders of the Union as long as they can, and when whipped, to resume their places by 
the side of faithful, loyal men, without loss or punishment. 

COWARDLY SURRENDER TO THE REIM'.LS. 

The following is the chief plank in the platform adopted. It is ft demand for a cow- 
ardly and dishonorable surrender to the rebels. 'It is a false and shameful admission that 
the "'North" is whipped; that the struggle to save the Union is a failure; that all the 
bloodshed, and money spent, must go for nought, and that the rebels shall dictate their 
own terms of oeace: Here is the tory plank: 

Rexohwl, That this Convention does explicitly declare, as the sense of the American people, that after fonr 
years [not. till May next,] of failure to restore the Union by the experiment^ of war, during which, under the 
pretence of a military necessity, or war power higher than the Constitution, the Constitution itself has been 
disregarded in every part, [a lie,] and public liberty and private right alike trodden down, [another lie.] and the 
material prosperity of the country essentiallv impaired— justice, humanity, liberty, and the puldic welfare 
demand that IMMEDIATE EFEORl'S BE MADE li'OR A CESSATION Oi' HOSTILITIES, with a view to aU 



13 

ultimate convention of the States, or other peaceable means, to the end, that at the earliest practicable moment 
peace may be restored on the basis of the Federal States. 

On this pusillanimous platform Gen. George B. McClellan was placed as the Presidential 
standard-bearer of the "peace sneaks," 

SrEECH OF HARRIS, OF MARYLAND. 

The name of General McClellan having been placed in nomination before the Conven- 
tion, and before the vote was taken, Mr. Harris, member of Congress from Maryland, and 
a delegate to the Convention, arose and said : (Quoted from the Chicago Times.) 

We Democrats of Maryland have been oppressed, as you know. All our rights have bocn trampled upon, and 
tUe strong arm of the military has been over us as it rests upon us now, as it was instituted by your nominee, 
(General McClellan. [Confusion, applause and hisses, mainly from the galleries.] Admit the fact that all our 
liberties and rights have been destroyed, and I ask you, in the name of common tense, in the name of justice, 
in the name of honor, will you reward tho man who struck the first blow? [Applause and hisses.] From the 
judications 1 see here to-day, I have reason to fear that the man who has been in tho front of this usurpation, 
[Gen. McClellan] will be the successful candidate. 

GEN. M'CLELLAN THE FIRST USURPER. 

I claim it as a right to state that one of the mon whom you have nominated, is a tyrant. [Hisses and 
etieers.j General McClellan was tho very first man who inaugurated the system of usurping State rights. 
[Uproar.] This I can prove, and I pledge myself, if you will hear me, to prove every charge in the indictment. 
And it is the duty of a jury, when a cliargo is made which is proven, to convict and not reward the offender. 
Maryland has been cruelly trampled upon by tiiis man, and I cauuot consent, as a delegate from that State, to 
allow his nomination to go unopposed. What you ask me to do is, in reality, to support tho man who stabbed 
lay own mother; and I for one — and I believe I speak for the whole delegation from Marylaud — will never doit; 
We will never, never consent that the State of Maryland shall be so dishonored. What, is it a fact that you 
c«re nothing for the dishonor of a sovereign State? Is it really the case that you can consent that tho man who 
overthrew liberty and crushed under loot the free institutions of a State, shall receive reward instead of punish- 
in-nt for his tyranny? In old times, it was tho doctrine that an injury done to one State, was an injury inflicted 
on all ; and instead of rewarding the perpetrator of tho injury, each State should come forward to resent it. 
N'ow you propose a reward in the. shape of Presidential honors to the man who first sot the iron heel of despotism 
upon my State. — Chicago Tinws Report. 

Mr. Harris then read from a newspaper, the following order of General McClellan, 
dated Sept. 12, 1861, for the 

ARREST OF THE MARYLAND LEGISLATURE^ 
Maj. Gen. N. P. Banks, V. S. A. 

General — After a full consultation with the President, Secretaries of State, War, Ac, it has been decided to 
•fleet the operation proposed for the 17th. Arrangements have been made to have a Government steamer at 
Annapolis to reccivo the prisoners and carry them to their destination. 

Some four or five of the chief men in the affair are to be arrested to-day. When they meet on the 17th, yon 
will have everything prepared to arrest the whole party, and be sure that none- oscape. 

It is understood that you will arrange with Gen. pix and Gov. Seward, the modus operandi. It has been 
Intimated to me that the meeting might take place on the 14th; plcaso bo prepared. I would bo glad to have 
you advise me frequently of your arrangements in regard to this vary important matter. 

If it is (successfully carried out, it wilt go far towards breaking the back-bone of tho rebellion. It will prob- 
ably be well to have a special train quietly prepared to take the prisoners to Annapolis. 

I leave this exceedingly important affair to your tact and discretion — the absoluto necessity of socrocy and 
success. 

With tho highest regard, lam, my dear Goneral, your sincere friend, 

GEOKGE P. McCLELLAN, Maj. Gen. U. S. A. 

Again Mr. Harris spoke : (Chicago Tribune Report) 

I am here for tho purpose of presenting to the Convention, the character of the man whom you have nomi- 
nated, and I wish you to hear his character and to know him as well as I do. [Cheers.] [Throe cheers for .Mac. 
being called for, they were given amidst a whirlwind of hisses.] Well, sir, that is a document by which Georgo 
B. McClellan took up and arrested the Legislature of Maryland, a sovereign Stato, met in order to thwart the 
tyranny and oppression of Abraham Lincoln, [Cries of - Show him up, show him up," " Go on, go on, : 'J to subvert 
and overturn those things that are tho foundation and basis of our country. Where is the man who sympathizes . 
with Maryland, who could go to the polls, and vote for such a man? Why, Mr. President, how long do you 
suppose that these sons and representatives of Maryland were imprisoned in tho bastil«.s of the United States t 
For sixteen months they were separated from their families, torn from their homes, kept from their 
business, and when at last their bars and bonds were loose, it was in spite of ttie acts of him by whom 

they were placed there, of him, that, devil McClellan [Great sensation, hisses and considerable . 
cheering.] \\ ell, sir, I look upon it that it not only struck at the liberties of" Maryland and the freedom of the 
people, but at the existence of tho Legislature of our State, and all the charges I can make against Lincoln and 
kis Administration, I can make against this man McClellan. [Cheers ] 

Another count in the indictment, thfits is tho letter of October .9, 1801. 

The speaker was hero interrupted by so much disorder and rowdyism, that he was forced to suspend the 
reading of the letter for several minutes, the breach of order being so manifestly beyond reason. 

Although the Convention had just adopted a platform claiming "freedom of speech" 
as one of its principles, the effort to suppress what Mr. Harris had to gay, was so fierca 
and boisterous, that it was not until he had knocked down one of the delegates from 
New York, and given distinct indications that he was armed and ready for a " free fight," 
after the manner of the chivalry, that he could secure a hearing. He proceeded: 

SEN. M'CLELLAN INTERFERES WITH ELECTIONS IN MARYLAND, AND SUSPENDS THE HABEAS 

CORPUS. 

I now proceed to another count in the indictment. On October 29, 1S61, he thus wrote to General Banks : 
" General: There is an apprehension amongst Union citizens in many parts of Maryland of attempted inter- 
ference in the election to take place on the 6th of November next. In order to prevent this, the Major General 
commanding— (and who, gentlemen, was the Major General commanding but George B. McClellan?) The Major 



14 

Genml commanding directs you to send a sufficient detachment to protect Union voters, and to Bee that nothing 
18 allowed to interfere with their rights as voters." 

[Here the speaker was interrupted with cries of "That's right." "Good I good!" while vociferous cheers were 
given for General McClellan.] 

Mr. Harris: I would have concluded long ago, Mr. President, except for interruptions that have been made by 
this assembly itself; and, certainly, you cannot take advantage of your own wrong, and prevent me proceeding. 
[The Speaker then read the remainder of the letter. Which authorized General Banks, iu order to prevent these 
alleged treasonable designs, to SUSPEND THE WRIT OF HABEAS CORPUS.] Now, sir, who feared the dis- 
unionists of Maryland would ever interfere with the Unionists? With the power in the hands of the Adminis- 
tration, with the power in the hands of the Governor of Maryland, where in the name of God was it to be 
supposed, except in the mind of some hypocrite, that it was necessary for some military force to come into the 
State and suspend that great writ, the Habeas Corpus. [Cheers.] And why Were these disuniouists allowed to go 
at large til! the day of election ; said he, you must arrest them before going to the polls and you may discharge 
them after the election [Cheers.] Why was this done? Why, if there was danger to the country in allowing 
these men to remain at large, were they not arrested till the day of election in the State by order of this Gen. 
McClellan? Those things that we have charged so frecpietitly against Abraham Lincoln, HE, GEORGE B. 
McCL.EU.AN HAS BEEN GUILTY OF HIMSELF. [Cheers and hisses.] Sir, he declares that, under the plea 
of military necessity — that tvraut's plea of military necessity — Abraham Lincoln has the power of abolishing 
one of the institutions of Maryland, Missouri, and Kentucky ; THE POWER OF ABOLISHING THK INSTITU- 
TION OF SLAVERY — a great right that you consider yourselves bound to protect, and to protect Maryland, 
Missouri, and Kentucky, in protecting. [See his Harrison's Landing letter to the President.] Now, what have 
you to s.iy to this charge against George B. McClellan. [Cheers ami hisses.] 

You have to meet them one way or another, for they will be made by our opponents, and it is better to hear 
them from a Democrat before the canvass commencos. [(beers.] What then have von to say in his favor? 
Why. as a military man. HAS HE BEiiN DEFEATED EVERYWHERE ? [Cries of "No, no," "yes, yes," and 
cheers.] The siege of Richmond was not, I think, a success; (ironically,) the battle of Antietam was not a suc- 
cess, and in him as a military leader vou have NOTHING WHATEVER TO BRAG OF, while vou have combined 
with MILITARY INCAPACITY THE FACT THAT HE HAS INTERFERED WITH AND DESTROYED THE 
CIVIL RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE. If Gen. McClellan, when Abraham Lincoln told him to arrest the Legis- 
lature ol Maryland, had said to him, " I have received a commission as commander at your hands — you can take 
it back before I become a tyrant," he would have stood before the world as a MAN ; but inasmuch as he received 
and acted upon instructions which struck a blow at civil liberty, he became the mere tool of Abraham Lincoln. 

A McClellunite ilefetids McClellan upon precisely the same grounds upon which every 
alleged arbitrary arrest made by the President may be defended, viz : suspected compli- 
city with vebe's. He proclaims that the Maryland Legislature were guilty of high treason 
in lending aid and comfort to the enemy, which is precisely the charge the Union massea 
of the North with equal grounds, make against the Chicago Convention. 

Gen. Q. W". Morgan, of Ohio, said : 

At the time these arrests were ordered, the Maryland Legislature was in session at Annapolis, General Joseph 
Johnson was in command of the rebel army at Winchester. There was a conspiracy on foot, and the four or five 

£ ergons here were the conspirators betweeu Gen. Johnston and this Legislature to accomplish the invasion of 
[arylaiid. This Legislature was in communication with Gen. Joe Johnston, one of the best and most distin- 
guished Generals of the Confederate army. The Legislature was to havo passed an ordinance of secession — 
the gentleman knows the meauiug of that term — they were to have withdrawn to the town of Frederick and 
there issued the ordinance of secession, and indirect and immediate concert with this ordinance, Johnston was 
to invade Maryland with an overwhelming force; and certain men in Maryland — the gentleman can state best, 
were to have aroused the people of Maryland iu arms against the sovereignty of the United States .George B. 
McClellan, then the Commander-in-Chief of our armies, had he acted otherwise than he did, would huvo been 
guilty of treason himself. 

A Democrat in defense of McClellan, is compelled to defend the right of the Govern- 
ment to prevent disunionists by military force from voting, which is the whole of the 
" grievances" against which the third resolution of their platform relative to military 
interference wiih elections in the United States is directed. What Morgan defends as 
right, the platform declares to be " revolutionary, and will be resisted with all the means 
and power under the control" of the Democratic party. G. W. Morgan says : 

The gentleman talks of troops being sent by George B. McClellan to suppress the liberty of tho ballot. Why, 
the very order itself 6tates in distinct words that the object of the troops sent there was to protect the Union 
citizens who, it was feared, would be deprived of their right of a free vote by intimidation at the ballot-box. 

In accordance with the laws of war these people who were guilty of direct communication with the enemy, 
and who invited the invasion of Maryland, by tho laws of war, instead of being arrested would havo been 
executed as spies; for such they were. They were communicating information to the enemy. They \vre guilty 
of high treason in furnishing the enemy with information, and agaiust these men and the intended intimidation 
at the polls this order was given. 

The same charge lies with equal force against the Chicago Convention. Extra Billy 
Smith, of Virginia, and other rebels from the rebel States, were present in communication 
with it on behalf of the enemy, and a motion was made to give them seats on the door, 
which was only overruled because they had come without credentials. 

ALEXANDER LON'd, OF OHIO, DENOUNCES M'CLELLAH 

As a cocrcionist, a usurper, and an emancipationist, unworthy the support of the Demo- 
cratic party. He says : 

I have but a few words to say, and T propose to say them; and I am not afraid to speak what I think, pven In 
the face of gentlemen who don't want to hear. I have faced the music before, and I am willing to do it here. 

Now, gentlemen of the convention, what have we complained of for the last three or four years? What lim 
been the burden of our complaint against Mr. Lincoln and his Administration? He has abridged the freedom of 
speech; he has arbitrarily arrested citizens and confined them in Bastiles, and he has interfered with the free- 
dom of elections. What have you proposed in these resolutions? You have, to a certain extent, vindicated the 
freedom Of speech; you have condemned arbitrary arrests and denounced interference with the freedom of elec- 
tions: and yet you propose in George B. McClellan to place upon that platform ONE WHO HAS GONH 
FURTHER IN ALL THREE OF THESE MEASURES THAN HAS ABRAHAM LINCOLN HIMSELF. 
[Hisses and applause.] George B. McClellan has not contented himself with the arrest of a citizen hore and 



15 

there, and incarcerating him in a Bastile, bnt has arrested an entire Legislature at one order. HE HAS ALSO 
SUSPENDED Til£ WRIT OF HABJSAS CORI'US of which you have complained. He has acquiesced in the 
emancipation proclamation of which yo« have complained of Mr. Lincoln; and yet you propose, in the very face 
of the denunciation you have heaped upon the head of Mr. Lincoln, to stultify yourselves by taking up a man 
Who has been a supple instrument of Mr. Lincoln for carrying out the very acts you denounce. 

Then gentlemen, is this what the people are to expect from a Democratic convention. [Voices — " No, no."] I 
trust not Give us a candidate for President— ANY ONE EXCEPT GEORGE «. McCLKLLAN— AN Y MAN, 
I CARE NOT WHO HE IS— [applause aud hisses]— ANY ONE WHOSE HANDS ARE CLEAN, whose skirts 
are clear — any one who has not been instrumental in making arbitrary arrests; in violating the freedom of 
elections and'the rights of citizens in every possible manner in which he could carry out the wishes of Abraham 
Lincoln. 

In conclusion, I beg of you not to nominate McClellan. Having laid upon the table the time-honored prin- 
ciples of the Democratic party, as expressed in the resolution of 1798-99 — having ignored them by laying the 
resolution on the table — and, WEAK AS YOUR PLATFORM IS, looking in some degree to peace, as it does, 
in God's name don't place upon it a man WHO IS PLEDGED TO EVERY ACT AGAINST WHICH YOUR 
PLATFORM DECLARES. 

SPEECHES OUTSIDE THE CONVENTION. 

Mr. Mahoney, a Northern rebel, recommends rebellion, and says : 

WE MUST GO TO THE SOUTH, IF SHE WILL NOT COME TO US. 

Mr. Mahoney, of Iowa, having lately represented that State in the Old Capitol Prison, 
was now introduced : 

When rulers aggressed on popular rights he saw the remedy in opposing force to usurpation — the people 
themselves to be judge of the occasion, time, and manner of its application. He was in favor of peace; but few 
Democrats had the courage to so declare themselves. The war affected all classes of people injuriously, except 
capitalists and placemen. He would have peace by all means. If the South would not come to us for peace, 
we should go to the South. We should not be discouraged by denials and failures; the Constitution «£ the 
United States was not all made at once. It had been amended in twelve particulars. He WOULD STILL 
FURTHER AMEND IT, to re-establish peace and union in permanency. He had enjoyed three mouths' reflec- 
tion on these thiugs under the heel of Abraham Lincoln, and he would have all join him in the unswerving 
resolve to submit to no new encroachments of tyranny. 

Mr. Snow, of Washington city : 

He (Mr. S.) predicted that, in view of the action of this convention, Lincoln would instantly bocomo a peace 
man, to enable him to withdraw the armies from the field and employ them at the polls. 

Hon. Mr. Early, of Nebraska: 

He invoked his countrymen of the green island to use their power in this Government, and the shillalah, if 
necessary, against any invasion of the freedom of the ballot-box. 

Hon. Wm. Weltz, of Pennsylvania, said: 

In the present aspect of "the situation" the great question with us was, not so much what shall be done with 
Southern rebels, but what shall be done for freemen of the North ? [Much cheering.] 

Capt. Isaiah Rynders, of New York, said, referring to those who had attacked McClel- 
lan in the Convention : 

He wished he had these men in the Eighth Ward, New York, where he had a little influence. [Cheers.] He 
(Capt. Rynders) was a man of force, and he was what some people in New York called a Copperhead. Ho was 
proud ot the name. [Cheers and laughter.] He could go anybody before Abraham Lincoln. They could get no 
peace from hiui, and he was for a free fight to turn him out, and they would do it. [Cheers and laughter.] 



Is Convention, Wednesday, August 31. 

A PLAN TO ASSEMBLE THE DEMOCRACY FOR THE "FREE FIGHT," OR NORTHERN REBELLION. 

Gov. Wickliffe, leader of the rebel wing of the Kentucky Copperheads, the largest slave- 
holder in Kentucky, and having three sons in the rebel army, said: 

The delegations from the West, including that State to which I am attached, are of opinion that circum- 
stances may occur between this aud the 4th of March, that will make it uecessmy for tin; great mass of the 
Democracy of ihis country to be reassembled. To get up a new convention is a work of delay and much diffi- 
culty, and my object is, that the dissolution of this convention shall not bo affected by its adjournment, alter it 
finishes its labors to-day, but to leave it to the Executive Committee, and at the instance ot the Democracy, if 
any occasion shall require, to convene us at such time and place that the Executive National Committeo shall 
designate. 

JUsiitved, That the convention shall not be dissolved by the adjournment at the close of its business, but shall 
remain as organized, subject to be called together at any time and place that the Executive National Committee 
shall designate. 

Which resolution was received with much applause, and carried unanimously. 

The convention having nominated McClellan, Clement L. Vallandigham moved to make 
the nomination unanimous. He was seconded by John McKean, of New York, who gave 
notice that thpre was danger of a "revolution, a bloody revolution," which, of course, 
would be averted if the Copperheads should be allowed their own way. The threat 
Bounded like Ihose we heard from the present rebels in the canvass of 18G0. 

Pendleton, of Ohio, having been nominated for Vice President, we will let him describe 
his own posuion in relation to the rebels. He made a speech in Congress on the 18th of 
Jamiary, 1861. He afterwards carefully revised it, . nd had it published in the Appendix 
to the Globe We quote from it the following passages : 

My voice to-day is for conciliation ; my voice is for compromise, and it is but the echo of the voice of my con- 
stituents. I beg you, gentlemen, who with me represent the Northwest; you who, with mo, represent the Stiite 
of Ohio; you who, with me, represent the city of Cincinnati, I beg you, gentlemen, to hear that voice. If voa 
Will not ; IF YoV FIND CONCILIATION IMPOSSIBLE; IF YOUR DIFFERENCES ARE SO GREAT THAT 



16 

TOU CANNOT OR WILL NOT RECONCILE THEM, THEN, GENTLEMEN, LET THE SECEDING STATES 
DEPART IN PEACE; LET THEM ESTABLISH THEIR GOVERNMENT AND EMPIRE, AND WORK OUT 
THEIR DESTINY ACCORDING TO THE WISDOM WHICH GOD HAS GIVEN THEM. 

HE 18 SOLICITOUS FOB A FREE FIGHT. 

I will tell you, my Republican Mends, I know you have been pretty supercilious, you have been defiant, yon 
have been outrageous ; but I know I speak the heart arid voice of the old war-worn Democracy when I say that 
next fall we intend to have a tree election, free ballot, tree assemblage together, or the freest fight that ever 
took place in this country. [Tremendous cheering.] 

THE ESSENCE OF DEMOCRACY. 

The following are specimen chips of the speechifying " hove in" at the ratification 
meeting held on Wednesday : 
Mr. Sanderson said : 

If Abo Lincoln was re-elected, ho would free the negroes of the South, and then enslave tho people. We must 
maintain STATE RIGHTS. 

Judge Miller, of Ohio, said : q 

A bloody war has been waged to elevate the negro to an equality with the white man. There is no difference 
between a WAR DEMOCRAT AND AN ABOLITIONIST. THEY ARE BOTH LINKS IN THE SAME SAD- 
SAGE, MADE FROM THE SAME DOG. 

Mr. Rollins, of Missouri, said : 

I love our southern friends. They are a noble, a brave and chivalrous people, although they are trying to 
break up tho Government. 

Mr. Hanna, of Indiana, was heavy on Ben Butler, and poured over his devoted head 
«nch venomous slime as this : 

By whom was Lincoln supported? Prominent among his supporters is Butler, half devil, one-quarter beasb 
and less than one-fourth human, begotten by the Prince of Hell, spewed from the rotten womb of crime, and 
thrown into the lap of civilization, a deformed, unfinished wretch. He was sent before his time into this breutlk- 
ing world, less than half made up, and is so hateful looking that the dogs bark at him as he passes by. 

By G — d, we must have McClcllan nominated. Wo must put a stop to this d — d war. — Dean Richmond, of 
jYcki York. 

The war is an unholy fight. Soon the net is to be drawn that will gather in its half million more to feed the 
Insatiable thirst for blood of the Negro God. Let us demand u cessation of the sacrifice* until the people shall 
pronounce their great and emphatic verdict for peace, and let the tyrant understand that tho demand Cornea 
from earnest men and must be respected. — McMastcrs, of New York. 

Mr. Johnson, claiming to be a Gospel monger from Missouri, hinted strongly at a 
Western Confederacy. He said . 

If it shall bo necessary in the settlement of our difficulties to allow a few star* to form a constellation hy 
themselves, I think wo can be just as safe, just as well protected, and just as free and happy under a Union of 
Republics as we have been under a Union of States. I want to see this whole continent bound together by a 
grand union of Republics. And we will have it, ami will have peace and harmony, and self-government with it. 

Let us hurl that usurper from power. Never till that day conies when the usurper and his victim meet at the 
judgment seat can ho bo punished for his wrongs, for his conspiracy against American liberty. — Baker, of 
Michigan. 

What is this war for? The nigger. It is for tho nigger against the white man. I think wo don't want our 
bosoms stuffed so much with damned niggers this warm weather. I don't believe the negro is equal to the white 
man. Is it not high time that this inferuul war was stopped ? If tho South coufcl be subjugated by this infernal 
war, the bayonets would be turned against the North. Come weal or woe, we will be for the sovereignty of the 
States and individual rights. — Mr. Sanderson, of 111. 

I advise peace and harmony, but if in the strugglo it reaches the point that the ballot-box is ever touched 
with sacrilegious hands, I say, then and there, come what will, let tho lives and honor of all be pledged to the 
biggest fight the world ever saw. — Bisliop, of Miciiigan. 

No more arbitrary arrests will bo permitted with impunity. No more Vallandighams will be dragged from 
the bosoms of their families, atfcd spirited away to a foreign land or a dungeon, unless tho attempt costs blood. — 
fVarren, of Rhode Island. 

Capt. Kuntz, of Pittsburgh, said: 

Mr. Lincoln is a d — d thief and leader of thieves. Lincoln was now pinyed out; the opposition to him WM 
pring to be bold and powerful ; there must be no underhand work, and if Democrats catch any of Lincoln's b — j 
satrap spies among them, they must cut their d— -d throatB, that's all. I should like to seo the noble George B, 
McClelhtii as President, [cheers] and that great Democrat, Horatio Seymour, should occupy the position of Sec- 
retary of State. In the Cabinet, I would see the name of Voorhoes, and tho brilliant galaxy of gsntlemsn 
itntesmen who cluster round tho Democratic banner. 



Printed aad Stereotyped by McQill & Witherow, Washington, D. C. 



THE GREAT SURRENDER 

TO THE REBELS IN ARMS. 



THE .A-IE^IMIISTIOIEX 



** Immediate efforts be made for a cessation of hostilities."— Peace and Di*- 

union Pl-atform of the Chicago Copperhead Convention. 

4 

For more than three years our beloved country has been engaged in a bloody 
and desolating war to restore the Union and uphold and maintain our Constitu- 
tion. This war, the most causeless and wanton that history has ever recorded, 
was commenced by bold, bad, and ambitious men to throw off the salutary re- 
straints of a a;ood Government, and establish a republic which should have for 
its corner-stone the institution of human bondage. A few base and infamous 
wen in the North have sometimes undertaken the ignoble task of excusing the 
traitors who have taken up arms against the Government by attempting to show 
that the rights of the slaveholding States had been invaded. The^e can be no 
better answer to these men who have been so swift to apologize for rebels, than 
that made by the Hon. Alexander IT. Stephens, of Georgia; (now the Vice 
President of the bogus Confederacy,) in the Convention in Georgia, in 1861, 
which passed the secession ordinance. The candid reader is requested to care- 
fully peruse what Air. Stephens says, and see how completely he answers the 
miserable lickspittles and Southern sympathizers in the North, who palliate and 
excuse the great crime of secession. Mr. Stephens said : 

This step (Secession) once taken, can never be recalled; and all the baneful conse- 
quences that must fallow must rest on the convention for all coming time. When we and 
our posterity shall see our lovely South desolated by the demon of war, which this act of 
yours will inevitably invite and call forth ; when our green fields of waving harvests 
shall be trodden down by the murderous soldiery and the fiery car of war sweeping over 
our land, our temples of justice laid in ashes, all the horrors and desolations of war upon 
us, who but this- convention will be held responsible for it, and who but he that shall give 
his vote for this unwise and ill-timed measure shall be held to strict account for this cui- 
eidal act by the present generation, and probably cursed and execrated by posterity in all 
coining time, for the wide and desolating ruin that will inevitably follow this act you now 
propose to perpetrate ? 

Panse, I entreat you, and consider for a moment what reasons you can give that \&fl 
even satisfy yourselves in calmer moments, what reasons you^can give to your fellow suf- 
ferers in the calamity that it will bring. What reasons can you give to the nations of the 
earth to justify it? They will be the calm and deliberate judges in the case; and to 
what cause, or one overt act,, can you point on which to rest the plea of justification*? 
What right has the North assailed 7 What interest, of the South has been invaded? What 
justice has been denied, or^what claim founded in justice and right has been withheld? 
Can any of you to-day name one governmental act of wrong deliberately and purposely 



*«. 



a 

done by the Government at Washington, of which the South has a right to complain? I 
challenge the answer. 

On the other hand, let me show the facts of which I wish you to judge; I will only 
state facts which are cloar and undeniable, and which now stand as records authentic in 
the history of our country. When we of the South demanded the slave trade, or the im- 
portation of Africans for the cultivation of our lands, did they not yield the right for twen- 
ty years? When wo asked for a three-fifths representation in Congress for our slaves, 
was it not granted? When we demanded the return of any fugitive, from justice, or the 
recovery of those persons owing labor or allegiance, was it not incorporated in the Con- 
stitution, and again ratified and strengthened in the fugitive slave law of 1850? When 
w,e asked that more territory should be added that we might spread the institution of 
slavery, have they not yielded to our demands, in giving Louisiana, Florida, and Texas, 
out of which four States might have been carved, and ample territory for four more to 
be added in due time, if you, by this unwise and impolitic act, do not destroy this hope, 
and by it loso all, and havo your last slave wrenched from you by stern military rule, as 
South America and Mexico were, or by the vindictive decree of universal emancipation, 
which may reasonably be expected to follow ? 

But what have we to gain by this proposed change of our relation to the General Gov- 
ernment ? We have always had the control of it, and can yet if wc remain in it, and are 
united as we have been. We have had a majority of the Presidents chosen from the 
8outh, ae well as the control and management of most of those chosen from the North, 
We havi had sixty years of Southern Presidents to their twenty-four, thus controlling the 
Executive department. So of the judges of the Supreme Court, we have had eighteen 
from the South, and but eleven fromtlie North. Although nearly four-fifths of the judicial 
business has arisen in the free States, yet a majority of the court has always been from 
the South. Tbis we have required, so as to guard against any interpretation of the Con- 
stitution unfavorable to us. In like manner, we have been equally watchful to guard our 
interests in the. legislative branch of government. In choosing the presiding Presidents 
(pro tern.) of the Senate, we have had twenty-four to their eleven. Speakers of the House, 
we have had twenty-three and they twelve. While the majority of Representatives, from 
their greater population, have always been from the North, yet we have so generally se- 
vered the Speaker, because he, to a great extent, shapes and controls the legislation of 
•he country. 

Nor have we had less control in every other department of the General Government. Of 
Attorney Generals we have had fourteen, while the North has had but five. Of foreign 
Ministers we have had eighty-six, and they had but fifty-four. While three-fourths of 
the business which demands diplomatic agents abroad is clearly from the free States, 
from their' greater commercial interest, yet we have had the principal embassies, 
po as to secure the world's markets for our cotton, tobacco, and sugar, on the best possi- 
blo terms. We have had a vast majority of the higher officers of both army and navy, 
while a larger proportion of the soldiers and sailors were drawn from the North. Equally 
bo of clerks, auditors, and comptrollers filling the Executive departments. The record 
shows for the last fifty years, that of the three thousand thus employed, we have had more 
than two-thirds of the same, while we have but one-third of the white population of the 
Republic. Again, look at another item, in which we have a great and vital interest, that 
of revenue, or means of supporting Government. From official documents we learn that a 
fraction over three-fourths of the revenue collected for the support of Government, has 
uniformly been raised from the North. 

Pause now, while you can, and contemplate carefully and candidly these important 
items. Leaving out of view for the present the countless millions of dollars you must 
expend in war with the North, with tens of thousands of your sons and brothers slain in 
battle and offered up as sacrifices upon the alter of your ambition — and for what ? Is it 
for the overthrow of the American Government, established by our common ancestry, ce- 
mented and built up by their sweat and blood, and founded on the broad principles of 
right, justice, and humanity? And as such, I must declare here, as 1 have oftca done 
before, and which has been repeated by the greatest and wisest of statesmen and patriots 
in this and other lands, that it is the best and freest government, the most equal in its rights, 
the most just in its decisions, the most lenient in its measures, and the most inspiring in 
its principles to elevate the race of men, that the sun of heaven ever shone upon. Now, 
for you to attempt to overthrow such a Government as this, unassailed, is the heighth of 
madness, folly, and wickedness. 

No language can measure the awful consequences that have followed, since 
the rebels made war upon our Government, by firing on our flag at Fort Sum- 



3 

ter. It, will be left for the weeping voice of history to record how much blood 
has been 6hed, how many precious lives have been sacrificed, how great have 
bees the mourning and anguish throughout all the land, what oceans of treas- 
ure have been expended to put down this rebellion, and restore the Union and 
Constitution of our lathers. But (his same history will record on its brightest 
page, and in letters of living light, the achievements and the glories of our 
countrymen in arms. Posterity to the latest ages, will read with gratitude and 
pride of the " battles fought and victories won" by the noble men who have 
gone out from among us, to sustain our Government and vindicate the honor 
of our insulted flag. The magnificent fighting that has been done by our troops, 
illustrating on so many fields their heroism and their valor, the splendid record 
of what they have accomplished in their great work, shall stand out as the niaryei 
of all coming time. To-day, the power of the rebellion reels and totters to its 
final and complete overthrow. The old sea-dog, Farragut, whose naval achieve- 
ments are without parallel in the history of naval warfare, has, by unheard of 
skill and gallantry, captured all the approaches to Mobile harbor, taking Forts 
Raines and Morgan (the two strongest forts on this continent) with their garri- 
son and armament, and sealing up that port against British blockade runners. 
The invincible and heroic Sherman, advancing over half an empire, fighting a 
succession of victorious battles and challenging the admiration and gratitude of 
his countrymen, with his battle-scared and war-worn veterans, has pierced the 
very heart of rebeldom in the Southwest. Atlanta, the very key-stone of the 
rebel arch of the best half of their bogus Confederacy, falls before his marvel- 
lous skill and the unrelenting energy of his unconquerable legions. Grant,, 
the "Hero of the Mississippi," whose unequaled achievement in the capture of 
Vicksburg, opened the " Father of Waters" so that the commerce of the north- 
west now floats " un vexed to the sea." He fought a battle above the clouds at 
Chattanooga, snatching victory from the jaws of defeat, and opened the gateway 
to Georgia. Taking command of the Army of the Potomac, with unparalleled 
audacity and courage, he attacks Lee with his chosen army in his works on the 
Rapid Ann, and by a series of the most bloody battles ever fought, drives the 
rebel chieftain through sixty miles of his intrenchments to the defences of 
Richmond. There, by a masterly maneuver, he plants himself on the south side 
of James river, obtains and holds possession of the Weldon railroad, the great 
artery into the capital of the rebel government. He has fixed his Luii-dog 
grasp on the very throat of the rebellion, and that glfcsp will nev-ir be relaxed 
until the success of a disloyal party shall demand it, or until the American flag 
shall float in triumph and glory from the dome of the rebel capitol. 

Who cannot see that the rebellion is at its last gasp. A great part of the re- 
bellious territory has been recovered. The " Star Spangled Banner" now floats 
in every State of the Union. There are now only two or three States where the 
rebel power pretends to maintain itself even partially intact. 
* Lieutenant General Grant, in the following letter written to a friend, gives 
his ideas of the present military and political situation. Such" words coming 
from that great chieftain, who knows and judges so well, should sink deep into 
every loyal heart : 

Washington, September 8, 1864. 
Headquarters of the Armies of the United States, \ 
City Point, Virginia, August 16, 1864. / 
Hon. E. B. Washburnk : 

Dear Sir : I state to all citizens who visit me that all we want now to insure an early 
restoration of the Union is a determined unity of sentiment in the North. The rebels have 
now in their ranks their last man. The little boys and old men are guarding prisoners, 
guarding railroads and bridges, and forming a good part of their garrisons for intrenched 



positions. A man lost by them cannot be replaced. They have robbed the cradle and the 
grave equally to get their present force. Besides what they lose in frequent skirmishes and 
battles, they are now losing from desertion and other causes at least one regiment per 
day. With this drain upon them the end is not far distant, if' we will only be true to our- 
selves. Their only hope now is i< a divided North. This might give them reinforcement f 
from Tennessee, Kentucky, Maryland and Missouri, while it would weaken us. With tl.j] 
draft quietly enforced, the enemy would become despondent, and would make but littbj 
resistance. I have no doubt but the enemy are exceedingly anxious to hold out until afte*} 
t"he Presidential election. They have many hopes from its effects. They hope a countc'j 
revolution. They hope the election of the peace candidate; in fact, like Micawber, the/J 
hope for " something to turn up." Our peace friends, if they expect peace from separatio i\ 
are much mistaken. It would be but the beginning of war, with thousands of Northern men! 
Joining the South, because of our disgrace in allowing separation. To have peace on ami 
terms, the South would demand the restoration of their slaves already freed They would 
demand indemnity for losses sustained, and they would demand a treaty which would make 
the North slave hunters for the South. They would demand pay, or the restoration of every 
slave escaping to the North. Yours, truly, U. S. GRANT. 

The view expressed by Gen. Grant in his letter in relation to what the 
rebels expect from the Presidential election is sustained by the best rebel au- 
thority. Senator Senimcs, of Mississippi, delivered a speech at Jackson, 
Miss., on the 15th ult., in which he said : 

Our hopes for an early peace were dependant entirely on the success of (he Democratic partj 
at the North in the approaching Presidential election. The whole population of the North, 
the rich as well as the poor, were now called to face the war with all its horrors; and he 
believed that they would not submit to the draft ordered for the bth of September next ; that 
they would resist by force of arms first ; that the Peace party would continue to grow and bi 
successful in the approaching canvass. 

The honorable rebel gentleman gave his views of military affairs as follows : 

He said he did not desire to excite any undue expectations or alarm, that everything de- 
pended upon Sherman being routed front Atlanta. That Richmond was safe, and Atlanta 
would be the great battle-field of this tear. Everything indicated that the enemy were con- 
centrating all their available forces there; our Government was doing the same. Mississippi 
would have to take care of herself for the present, for the fall of Atlanta would establish a trans- 
Chattahoochee department, cut us off from Richmond, and entail upon us the same difficulties 
which now existed with regard to the trans- Mississippi department ; it would enable Lincoln to 
enforce his draft upon the 5(h of September next, secure the re-election of that black-hearted 
monster, and prolong the war to an indefinite period of time. 

Such is the#coudition of things. After the most terrific military struo-^le the 
world has ever seen, the war approaches its triumphant termination with a re- 
stored Union, with the Constitution vindicated, and with a strength and a power 
and a glory that make3 us the first nation on the globe. But we now have to 
contemplate an appalling fact. A great party in the North, prostituting the 
name of " Democracy" to its base and disloyal purposes, and acting in sympathy 
and in concert with traitors in arms, have recently held a Convention at Chicago, 
which was in open sympathy with the rebels. The New York Herald, a paper 
that is independent of all parties, in speaking of this Convention, utters the 
following important truths : 

We have not the slightest doubt that there is a mutual understanding between the 
Seymours, the Woods, Vallandigham, and the rebels. This understanding is shown in 
the secession platform adopted by the Chicago Convention, and in the nomination of Mr. 
Pendleton, of Ohio — who is a practical secessionist — for Vice-President. We have now 
driven the rebels completely to the wall. General Grant has the best of them at Richmond, 
and General tihermau has succeeded in capturing Atlanta. This i3 not the time, then, 
that any 'reasonable man would be talking about " an immediate cessation of hostilities." 
We are in favor of an armistice, like that between Prussia and Denmark, where both sides 
hold their ground, and are ready to begin the conflict at any moment. But there is a 
•vast deal of difference between such an armistice and the " immediate cessation of hos- 
tilities" which the Chicago platform requires. Nothing can explain such a platform, 



except the hypothesis that it was dictated by Jeff. Davis to the Peace Democrats, and 
that these peace men foisted it upon the Chicago Convention, as lue price of their endorse- 
ment of General McClellan's nomination. 

This Convention made a declaration of the principles which should govern 
the party in case of its advent to power. Such a declaration ot principles is 
more familiarly called a " platform." The architect of that platform was Clement 
L. Vallandigham, of Ohio, who, a little more than one year ago, was arrested, 
tried, convicted, and sentenced to transportation beyond our lines, for his notori- 
ous and admitted disloyalty to our Government. This platform was adopted by 
the Convention with only four dissenting votes. It is a platform of peace and 
disunion, and must forever remain a monument of infamy to the party that 
adopted it. It is not only an unpardonable insult to the country, and a foul 
libel upon our soldiers and sailors, in declaring that we have failed in the exper- 
iment of war, but in it3 atrocious demand for a " cessation of hostilities," it 
virtually demands that our armies shall ground their arms — that the veterans 
who have borne the victorious eagles of Grant and Sherman in a hundred battles, 
shall surrender as prisoners of war. It means the recognition of the rebel Con- 
federacy. It means that Farragut shall withdraw his fleet from Mobile harbor, 
and Dahlgren his iron-clads from Charleston, that our blockading squadrons 
shall everywhere abandon the blockade, and let the rebels send out all their 
cotton to replenish their exhausted treasury. It means that our navy shall be 
left to rot at our wharves, and that rebel pirates may roam unmolested over the 

ean destroying our commerce, which so lately dotted over all the seas with 

uteness. 

THE ARMISTICE. 

" A cessation of hostilities " in the language of the Copperhead platform of 
peace and disunion, is what is technioally called by all military authorities, " an 
armistice," and it is well to consider what an armistice is. It is a complete sus- 
pension of all military and naval power as between belligerents. Before the first 
step could be taken for this "cessation of hostilities" demanded by the Cop- 
perhead platform, it would be necessary to acknowledge the rebel government, 
and that would be but a preparatory step towards treating with it as if enjoying 
all the powers of an independent sovereignty. With such a step once taken, it 
would be the merest infatuation to suppose that the government thus recognized 
would deny itself, either in a preliminary convention, or a subsequent treaty. 
" An armistice." such as the Copperheads demand, must be between two nations, 
because it is the mutual acknowledgment of two independent powers. It points 
to nothing less than an abandonment of the war by the Government of the 
United States, with a corresponding acknowledgment of the complete success 
of the rebellion. It is thus showu beyond all cavil what the Copperhead con- 
vention meant when it demanded this u cessation of hostilities." It meant the 
recognition of th#so-called "Confederate States of America," as an independ- 
ent sovereign power ; and it therefore meant DISUNION, to be followed by 
consequences so terrible as to appal the stoutest heart in contemplating them. 
This view as to what the Copperhead convention meant by this demand for an 
armistice, is made clear by their nomination of an open disunionist as their can- 
didate for Vice President, George H. Pendleton. This man boldly stood up in 
the House of Representatives on the 18th day of January, 1861, and proclaimed 
as follows : 

My voice to-day is for conciliation ; my voice is for compromise, and it is but the echo 
of the voice of my constituents. I beg you, gentlemen, who with me represent the 
Northwest; you who, with me, represent the State of Ohio ; you who, with me, represent' 
the city of Cincinnati, I beg you, gentlemen, to hear that voice. If you will not ; if you 



6 

find co?iei'iati.on impossible ; if your differences are so great that you cannot or ivill not reconcile 
them, then, oentlkmen, let the seceding States dbpabt in peace ; let them establish 

THEIR GOVERNMENT AND EMPIRE, AND WORK OUT THEIR DESTINY ACCORDING TO THE TIS90M 
WHICH GOD HAS GIVEN THEM. 

■n 
JTurther along in the same speech he says : K 

If these Southern States cannot be reconciled, and if you, gentlemen, cannot find It in 
your hearts to grant their demands; if they must leave the family mansion, I would 
signalize /heir departure by tokens of love ; I would bid them farewell so tenderly that they 
would forever he touched by the recollection of it ; and if in the vicissitudes of their separate 
existence, they should desire to come together again in our common Government, there should be 
no pride to be hwnilialed, th£re should be no wound inflicted from any hand to be hcalul. They 
should come and be welcome to the place they now occupy. 

Further extracts fvom Pendleton's speeches of a like character might be ad- 
duced, but it is unnecessary, for his whole record in Congress proves his intense 
hostility to our Government and his sympathy with the traitors in arms. 

The Chicago Copperhead Convention which nominated McClellan and tine 
above-named Pendleton upon their platform of peace and disunion, was con- 
trolled by the most notoriously disloyal men in the counfcry ; men who have never 
failed to express their sympathy for the rebels and their hatred for the good old 
constitutional Government of our fathers. The following extracts from speeches 
made there prove the base purposes of the Copperhead leaders to betray the 
country into the hands of the blood-stained and barbarous foe. 

Hon. W. A. Richardson, the Copperhead United States Senator from Illi- 
nois, spoke as follows, as reported in the Chicago rebel organ, the Times : 

To re-elect Mr. Lincoln is to accept four years more of war, four years more of trouble, 
of disaster, of woe, of lamentations, of ruin to the country. [Applause.] To defeat 
Mr. Lincoln, to accept the nominee of the Chicago Convention, [cheers,] is to bring peace 
and harmony and concord and union to these Suites [Loud applause.] 

But these Republicans say they would be very much disgraced if they were to propose 
terms of settlement with rebels with arms in their hands. These people with arms 
in their hands are the very people I want to settle with. I am not 
afraid of a man if he has no arms. 

Mr. Stambaugh, a delegate from Ohio, said : 

That if he was called upon to elect between the freedom of the nigger and disunion and 
separation, he should choose the latter. [Cheers.] Bayonets and cannon, and 
above all, negro emancipation, cannot conquer a permanent peace. His plan for the solu- 
tion of these difficulties, was an armistice, and an arrangement for a joint Convent ion, in 
which to talk over and arrange all family grievances. lie was certain that in Ohio 
the entire community were in favor of peace. 

The notorious Captain Rynders, of New York city, spoke as follows : 

After three years of despotism he stood before them a free man — before a free peo- 
ple. With reference to th'e remark which he had referred to, he would now speak after 
the digression he had just made. It w;4< a remark he did not approve of. lie had heard 
one of the speakers state that the people of the South were traitors, which were harsh 
words, as the people of the South were as brave and chivalrous a people as were ever put 
on this earth. [Cheers.] He had regretted that they took the step they did for the set- 
tlement of their grievances, for they bad great grievances. He was sorry they took these 
steps, and his advice was to stay in the Democratic party, and they would right 
their grievances. They, however, seemed to think differently, and he was sorry for it. 
Never had one word come from his lips against them, and he hoped his lips would be 
sealed when he did injustice to a brave, noble, and chivalrous people. [Applause.] t 

lion. Mr. Curtis, of New York, said: 

I trust the day will never come when the ucenes witnessed in the Commonwealth of 
Kentucky — a State rcnderedglorious by the associations of the past — will be enacted on 
this soil j when the Administration will endeavor by force of arms to interfere with the 



free sentiment and free will of the people. But, if that day should come, before God and 
in sight of Heaven, I would invoke the aid of counter revolution. [Loud cheering.] A 
people who would submit to that degree of outrage and tyranny which destroys the 
charter of their liberties— (to wit, to be required to swear allegiance to the United States 
before voting in a State claimed to belong to the confederacy) — are. nr>t fitted to live and 
stand up aa m<*n, but should lie down and die as slaves. [Cheers, and v. ica of ' good.'] 
I warn the Government now in power not to trample too far upon the irtRjrtwjfl which are 
left to us ; for if they do, they will be swept before a storm as a ship is swept from the 
sea in a storm. [Cheers.] 

L' John Fuller, of Michigan, characterized the war for the Union as — 

This unholy, cruel, and abominable struggle. [Loud cheers.] Gentlemen, are you 
willing longer to submit to this state of things? [Cries of ''No."] Our land is already 
wet with fraternal blood. Our press has. been shackled, the liberty of speech lias been 
suppressed, the writ of habeas corpus has been suspended, and he who dared to raise his 
voice against these arbitrary and unconstitutional acts has been arrested by the minions 
of .the Government, and incarcerated in dungeons or banished from his native land. 
[Cheers] Are you willing, I again ask, to bear these hardships and to submit to this 
tyranny and oppression? [Renewed cries of " No, no!"] Are you willing to follow in 
the footsteps of Abraham Lincoln, the perjure'd wretch who has violated the oath he took 
before high Heaven to support the Constitution and preserve the liberties of the people? 
[Cheers] 

Mr. G. C. Sanderson said the Union must not be restored by war. 

Fellow-citizens, what say you? Is it not time that this infernal war should stop? 
[Voices, <; Yes."] Has not there been blood enough ghed? Has there not b en property 
enough destroyed ? Have we not all been bound, hand and foot, to the abolilion car that 
is rolling over our necks like the wheels of another Juggernaut? We all love our coun- 
try. There is nothing would rejoice us more than to see the stars and stripes, the glorious 
emblem of our Union, re-established all over this country, but it ought to be done by 
concession and compromise. [Applause. A voice, "That is the doctrine."] It must not 
be by a further shedding of blood. It cannot be. [A voice, " It will never be done by 
blood."] We must have peace. Peace is our motive ; nothing but peace. If the South- 
ern Confe'deracy, by any possibility, be subjugated by this abolition Administration, the 
next thing they would turn their bayonets on the free men of the North and trample you 
in the dust. 

In the face of this record here presented to the consideration of the honest 
and loyal people of this country, it is demanded, if the proof is not overwhelm- 
ing, that the Copperheads of the country, speaking through their Chicago Con- 
vention and elsewhere, have virtually proposed to surrender the country to the 
rebels in arms against it, and at the very moment that the rebellion is about to 
be finally crushed out by our brave 'soldiers in the field, and the Union restored 
and the Constitution vindicated. 

" Oh ! for a tongue to curse the slave, 
Whose treason, like a deadly blight, 
Comes o'er the counsels of the brave, 
And blasts them in the hour of might." 



PEESIDENTTAL CAMPAIGN FOE 1864. 



UNION EXECUTIVE CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEE. 



ITon. E. D. MOROAN, of New York. 
" JAS. HARLAN, of Iowa. 
" L. M. MORRILL, of Maine. 
(Senate.) 



lion. E. R. WASHBURNH, of Hlinols. 
" R. B. VAN VALKENP.URQ, N. Y. 
" J. A. GARFIELD, of Ohio. 
« J. O. ELAINE, of Maine. 

(House of liaprescntatives.\ 



E. D. MOROAN, Chairman. JAMES HARLAN, Treasurer. D. N. COOLEY. Secretary. 

COMMITTEE EOOM3, Washington, D.C., Segt. 2, 1864. 

Dtap. Sra : The Union Congressional Committee, in addition to the. documents already publish/sl, propose to 
issue immediately the following documents for distribution among the paople : 

1. McClellan's Military Career Reviewed and Exposed. 

2. George II. Pendleton, his Disloyal Record and Antecedents. 

:■?! The Chicago Copperhead Convention, tho men who composed and controlled it . 

4! Ease surrender of tho Copperheads to the Rebels in Arms. 

5. The Military and Naval Situation, and the Glorious Achievements of our Soldiers and Sailors. 

o! A Few Plain Words with tho Private Soldier. 

7. Wh.it Lincoln's Administration lias done. • 

8. The History of McClellan's " Arbitrary Arrest " of the Maryland Legislatnre. 
0. ( 'an the Country Pay tho Expenses of tho War? 

10. Doctrines of tho Copperhead.* North identical with those cf the Rebels Seuth. 
il. The Constitution Uphold aud Maintained. 

12. Rebel Terms of Peace. 

13. Pence, to be Enduring, must be Conquered. 

14. A History of Cruelties and Atrocities of tho Rebellion. 

15. Evidencies of a Copperhead Conspiracy in the Northwest. 

The above documents will bo printed in English and Oermin in eight or sixteen page pamphlets, and sent, 
postage free, according to directions, at tho rate of one or two dollars per hundred copies. Tho plans and pur- 
poses of tho Copperheads having been disclosed by the nctiem of the Chicago Convention, they should at once 
be laid before the loj'al peoplo of the country. There is but two mouths between this and the election, and 
leacues, clubs and individuals should lose no time in sending in their orders. Remittances should be made in 
greenbacks or drafts on Now York City, payable to the order of James Harlan. 

Address: Free. Hon. JAMES HARLAN, Washington, D. C. 

Very respectful!) -, yours, Ac, D. N. COOU5F, Secretary. 



PSSNTED AND STEREOTYPED BY MoOILL & WITHBBOW, WA.SHIN(J©ON, D. 0. 




a.w m 



*L08WUS AOHIlYiJ 



■T <>VTi 



LDIEES 



aTV.JL m.J\ J S.fti&C?* 



WASHINGTON: 

PUBLISHED BY TRR ITNIOJT CONGRESSIONAL WttDBTtSBt. 
1864. 



: cf set. 



B ' 

- & 



THE MILITARY AND NAVAL SITUATION. AND 
THE GLORIOUS ACHIEVEMENTS OF OUR SOL 
D1ERS AND SAILORS. 



THE COURSE AND CONDUCT OF THE WAE. 

A wise maxim of the greatest genera) of antiquity prescribes that wt 
^jould esteem nothing done till ?.H is done ; but it is probable that its 
intent is rather to point out the danger of that indolent dwelling on the 
,ds of the past, which shuts out of view the duties and demands of 
the present, than to discourage (especially when a great task is laid 
opot a nation) such a retrospect of what has already been accom- 
plished as will inspire courage for carrying it through to the end. 

The country has lately passed through that trying experience which 
history shows is sure to come upon a people plunged into a great war. 
a period when the first popular enthusiasm having died out, the bur- 
dens and the bereavements of the war are brought keenly home to all. 
md a reaction of general despondency results. In this mood of the 
public, mind men forget that while they have suffered the enemy also 
bas suffered in an equal or even greater degree, and that too, perhaps, 
without the same ability to sustain his losses ; they forget while dwell- 
ing on their own defeats, that every victory they have won has been 
an equally sore defeat to the enemy. When this time comes thee 
«om«e the test of the mettle of a people. If weak they sink under it ; 
but the great-minded rise up stronger for the ordeal. 

The feeling of depression which but lately prevailed regarding th« 
seemingly indefinite prolongation of the war, and which is still felt by 
some, is a singular repetition of an experience which has frequently 
been felt by other nations conducting a long war. It has often hap- 
pened that men on the very eve of the conclusion of a war have 
toeked upon it as promising the longest duration ; and it will be in 
the memory of many that just previous to the termination of the Cri 
mean war, even as sagacious an observer as Mr. Cobden had just con- 
cluded proving in a pamphlet that it was certain to be prolonged for 
many years It thus frequently happens that war, which in its prac- 
tical execution deals so largely in deception, is itself the greatest of 
deceptions. When after years, perhaps, of strife, great armies still con- 
front each other, it is hard to penetrate its outlet or issue ; but some 
sudden turn of affairs precipitates the catastrophe long preparing and 
in the flames of a Waterloo, a Cannae, or a Pultowa, fa^-'us and sys- 
tems seemingly firm -rooted and imperishable t . in ashes and 
nothingness. 

At the outbreak of the rebellion the public mind became possessed 
with illusive anticipations that the war would be a short one — fiat 
onr victorious columns sweeping the rebels before them in their tn 



umphant path would, m a few oionch& at moat, end by palpitating 
ihem into the Gulf of Mexico. This was a great delusion no doubt ; 
but it was not more so than that other sentiment which has arises 
as the natural reaction after the rude shock this hope received — the 
error as to the indefinite prolongation of the war. The one fallacy is 
as pernicious as the oth^r ; for if the first was a great bar to the effi- 
cient execution of the duty of putting down the rebellion (and there is 
no doubt that our illusions as to ihe ease and speediness with which 
he work would be accomplished was a serious hinderance to the very 
preparations needed to make it short,) the ether is an error equally 
fatal ; for the paralysis of effort produced by the sentiment of the 
probable > longmss of the war is sure to make it much longer than it 
would otherwise be. There is no higher duty, therefore, than for patri- 
otic men to fortify themselves and others by the consideration of all 
the elements of hope and confidence which a retrospect of past prog 
resa and a survey of the present situation inspire. " 

Such a survey justifies the conclusion that the end of the war — th<> 
crushing of the armed forces of the rebellion — is not only not far off ; 
but that it is near "at hand, and than is in our power to bring it about 
Lmost at a blow. 

It will show the outlines of a war continental in its proportionr., 
waged on a theatre equal to the size of all Europe. 

It will show armies the greatest the world eve* - saw, raised and 
sustained by the spontaneous patriotism of a free people. 

It will show how, by the progress of our arms, the area of the 
rebellion has, step by step, been shorn of three-fourths of its propor- 
tions. 

It will show the insurgent territory cut off from oommuni cation 
with the outside world by a blockade which dwarfs any on record, 
and at the same time the most perfect of any on record. 

It will show now every stronghold on the coast has either been 
tjaptured or is now closely invested. 

It will show the interior of this territory cut up by our great line? 
y( conques', biseotcd iatterally and longitudinally, and the dominion 
of the confederacy left a kingdom of shreds and patches. 

It will show a succession of battles of colossal magnitude, in three 
fourths of which the Union arms have triumphed, and all of which, 
whether victories or reverses, in a purely military point of view, have 
redounded to the advance of the great cause. 

It will show the manhood of a population defending free institu- 
tions, vindicating itself against years of the gibes and insolence born of 
the plantation. 

It will show the fighting population of the insurgent States reduced, 
by battle, by disease, and by captures, from three fourths of a million to 
between a hundred and a hundred and fifty thousand men. 

It will show this force — the forlarn hope of the rebellion — separated 
by an interval of a thousand miles, divided into two armies, the one 
ot which driven from Chattanooga to Atlanta, has at length been 
oompelled to give up that point, the material capital of the confederacy, 
while the other is shut up in Richmond, the political capital of the 
confederacy. 

It will show that the annihilation of both 'hese armies is a mathe- 
matical certainty, if we put forth the strength at our command. 



It will reveal, finally, as the result of all this, the radiant figure, ol 
Pbace hovering not afar off, and plainly visible through the cloud of 
war that still overspreads the land. 

If this be the magnificent result which we have to show for the 
three years of war for the Union, it will give the people of the loya) 
States a criterion of action in the great issue now before the country — 
an issue that will determine whether by the maintenance of the Ad- 
ministration under wlrch the war has been conducted to these result*, 
and which can alone carry it through, we are willing to crown and 
justify all that has been done by a Peace that will vindicate and esta- 
blish forever the unity and integrity of the nation ; or whether we 
shall surrender our destinies into the hands of a party committed to 
a peace which makes the war for the Union a mockery — a party whose 
creed throws to the winds all that has been achieved by the toil and 
blood, the faith and the self-sacrifice of this nation, in the most terrible 
war in the world's history, whose creed casts disgrace on every soldier 
and *r the sod, makes the heroic bones that on a hundred battle fields 
render the continent sacred the monuments ol folly, which makes 
every sailor that has gone down at his guns for the love of the old 
Sag a fool, and every man who wears the insignia of a glorious 
wound a poor simpleton ; a creed, finally, the ^elusive peace result- 
ing from which can only be the beginning of unending war. 

n. 

THE TASK LAID UPON THE ADMINISTRATION BY THE 

WAR. 

When overt war, begun by the firing on Fort Sumter in April, 
1861, and brought to a head in the battle of Bull Run in the July 
following, had fairly inaugurated the rebellion against the constituted 
authorities of the United States, the Administration found itself com- 
mitted to a struggle contineniial in its proportions. The task imposed 
apon it, as described in Presid^t Lincoln's inaugural, was to " repos 
iess the forts, places and property which had been seized from the 
Union? But to do this it was needed th^t the embodied power of the 
Government should sweep armed resistance from the whole territory 
of the insurgent States. It is the nature of war like that of a confla- 
gration to involve and swallow up everything within its reach. The 
Southern heart " fired " by a few powerful leaders, plunged into the 
»7ar with a recklessness akin to madness, and from the Ohio to the 
*ulf, from the Potomac to the Mexican border was all aglow with 
red-hot rebellion. The Government accepted the task put upon it, for 
the people willed it, and it was the people's war. Conscious of its 
strength, arousing itself as a giant from slumber, the nation accepted 
die gage of war for the Union. 

There are, however, certain considerations which, little thought of 
at the time, entered so deeply into the militaty problem then pre- 
sented, have so influenced the course of war and count for so much in 
a proper estimate of what has been accomplished as to demand im- 
mediate statement here. They all go to show that the task of quel- 
ang the rebellion was much more difficult than was conceived at the 
time or than is commonly apprehended even bow. 

It is common fallacy n estimating the amount of foice the Got 



eminent could bring to bear on the revolted States to state U merely 
in the ratio of the population of the two sections — twenty million* 
in the loyal States against eight in the revolting States. But it ia 

(>roper to consider that the rebels had within themselves a slave popu- 
ation of over four millions, and that this population was able to car- 
ry on all their simple industries, which it required more than double 
that number to carry on the much more complicated industries of 
northern civilization. It is thua apparent that the whole fighting whit- 
population of the South was vailable for service in the field, while 
nearly half of our own population was necessarily neutralized in die 
way just mentioned. It is not wonderful, therefore, that the rebel 
leaders were able to put into the field, at the very start, armies nearly 
i equal to our own, though our own levies were unparalleled in history. 
To this must be added the astonishing ascendancy which a small 
minority of leading men had required over the southern population, 
and by which, .when they had once usurped power, they were able to 
wield an absolutely despotic control over all the resouices of men an«i 
material in the South. These men, in fact, had long been preparing 
for this war, as many of them publicly confessed after the inaugura- 
tion of the rebellion. " We have," said Mr. Barnwell Rhett in a 
speech in the convention which took South Carolina out of the 
Union, " we have been engaged iu this war for moie than thirty year . 
It is no consequence of Lincoln's election or the failure to execute tht 
fugitive slave law, but we have been engaged in this war for more tka.n 
thirty years" It is a thread-bare story how Buchanan's infamou* 
secretary had, for the last twelve months of that administration, bent 
all his energies to furnish forth the rebels with all they needed for 
their premeditated treason. It is a matter of official record that by 
the robbery of forts and arsenals, and by purchase from abroad. 
Floyd had distributed at various convenient points throughout th> 
South 707,000 stands of arms and 200,000 revolvers. Even befor* 
Mr. Lincoln's inauguration there were thirty thousand men under arm* 
in the South ; and two days after that inauguration the Confederate 
Congress passed a biil to raise an army of a hundred thousand meu 
And this, bear in mind, was at a time wheu the United States Govern 
ment had not under its control an organized force of five thousand 
men. 

• To enhance the difficulty of the task imposed on the adminis 
tration, the theory of the war into which it was driven by the very 
aature of the contest was that of the offensive. Now military history 
is replete with illustrations of the enormous advantage which a peo- 
ple has when able to stand at bay (covering its own communication* 
and holding interior lines) and await in chosen positions the attack* 
of the enemy. 

The career of Frederick the Great affords an eminent example of 
» small nation, never able to raise an army of over a hundred thou- 
sand men, conducting a defensive war, (with offensive returns,) and 
successfully resisting for seven years the attempts of a collision of fivt: 
of the leading Powers of Europe. But offensive operations against % 
people holding such defensive attitude becomes ten fold more difficult 
when the war becomes what is called a •' national war," the nature of 
which is thus dppicte 1 by the oreateat modern writer on the theory of 
war,. Gonera! J'jrLin' ; 



The difficult*** in am path ot an army m national wars Are ?<ary greai 
aid render the mission of the general conducting them very arduous. The is. 
»ader has only an army ; his adversaries have an army and a people wholly 
a almost wholly in arms, and making means of resistance out of everything 
•iach individual conspires against the common enemy— even the non-combatants 
aave an interest in his ruin, and accelerate it by every means in their power, 
Sach armed inhabitant knows the smallest paths and connections — he find* 
everywhere a relative or friend who aids him ; the commanders also know th« 
aountry, and learning immediately the slightest movement on the part of th« 
invader can adopt the best measures to defeat his projects." 

These embarrassments, enormously increased by the prodigious ex- 
tent of the theatre of war, the topography of which is all against th« 
offensive and in favor of the defensive (as witness the immense depth 
jf the lines of communicationsin any great aggressive movements, 
Jie impossibility of supplying our armies from the country as is done 
$n Europe, etc.,) entered into the portentous problemwhich the admin 
stration had to solve ; and yet, in face of this accumulation of dim^td- 
ies, forming a task the gravest that ever met an Executive, the w&j 
aas been pushed successfully through to the splendid result* we witnes* 
— the armies of the rebellion have been driven from the vast extern 
A territory the rebels claimed till now the one is shut up in the States 
bordering on the Gulf, and the other is besieged without hope of aa- 
i&p@ to Richmond. 

m. 

THE UPRISING OF THE NATION. 

jThe response of the people to the call of President Lincoln 6* 
nen with which to execute the authority of the Government wiii 
always rarnain one of the grandest manifestations of the spontaneous 
energy of a free people in the vindication of free institutions. It was 
ihen we saw that sublime " uprising" of the people, when all party dif • 
Serencies were merged in enthusiastic devotion to the Union — or rather 
when armed loyalty cowed and quelled secret traitors who, driven to 
their lurking places, saw the prudence of awaiting some other oppor 
sunity to show their hands. 

After Bull Run had shown that an arduous and protracted war wa* 
Wore us, Mr. Lincoln issued his proclamation for 300,000 men. The 

esponse of the North to the call was without a parallel in the history 
jf the world, and it was soon evident that more troops would be in 
he field than the act of Congress authorized. Within fifteen days it is 
sstimated that 350,000 volunteers offered themselves in defense of our 
xational flag. And from first to last, under the different calls, more than 
a MILLION AND A HALF of men have been under arms in the war 
for the Union. There is in history but one example of a similar upris- 
ing of the people in defense of its nationality, and that is the rushing 
:o arms of the French during the great revolution when threatened by 
the coalition. And yet the comparison only serves to show how fat 
even that fell short of what we have witnessed ; for modern historians 
nave proved that, notwithstanding all the exaggerations in regard to 

rhe number of men raised by France at that epoch, the figure never 
exceeded 500,000 men. Yet we have trebled that number. 

The task now before the Government was herculean, and such as 
tjight have made even Napoleon stand aghast. To raise and fit to* 



the field an army at six handled thousand men, to be supplied wit 
all the needs of a modern army, and that too without even the skei 
eton of a veteran force on which to build, was indeed a work oi 
frightful magnitude. And yet this was accomplished in the space erf 
three months — an achievement that has extorted the wonder and a©- 
miration of military men throughout the world. 

IV. 

THE FIRST YEAB OF THE WAR. 

As the chief force of the rebellion — the head and front of th* 
offending — was collected in Virginia, it became a necessity to piac* 
here an army of proportions fitting it to foil the purpose of the enemy 
touching the capture of our capital, at the same time to drive th* 
opposing force out of Virginia. 

With this view a grand army of over 500,000 men was collected a* 
Washington and placed under command of Major General G. B. Me- 
ridian, whose name, from a series of successful minor operations it 
Western Virginia, which another than he had planned and executed, 
had acquired a halo that did not properly belong to it. It was not 
until sometime afterwards thai that constitutional inactivity, whicfc 
aeems to be a part of General McClellan's nature, and that secret sym 
pathy with treason that has always made him tender of hurting trai 
tors, began to be appreciated, and hence it was that for many month) 
our armies were kept at a dead-lock, thus giving the rebels the oppor 
canity to prepare their plans, and the rebellion its best ally, time, an<? 
we put in a position of humiliation before the world. 

There was one result springing from the presence of our army ii 
Virginia, however, which even the generalship of McClellan could not 
prevent ; it thwarted the realization of those dreams of invasion that 
had fired the southern imagination. A powerful party of red-hot bel- 
ligerents had made the carrying of the war into northern soil their ral- 
lying cry. Washington was in particular the object of their chief 
desires, and their direst hate. The rebel Secretary of War boasted at 
Montgomery, on the 12th of April, that M the flag which now flaunt* 
the breeze here will float over the dome of the old Capitol at Wash 
ington before the 1st of July." 

After Bull Run the same ambition fired these men. Said the Rich- 
mond Examiner ; " From the mountain tops and valleys to the shore; 
of the sea there is one wild shout of firce resolve to capture Washing- 
ton city at all and every human effort." But this " wild shout of 
fierce resolve" was vain against the 200,000 bayonets present to defend 
the capital ; and though the early history of our army in Virginia wa* 
not of the character the people justly expected and the army eagerlj 
desired, it was at least something, in view of these desperate project* 
of the rebels, that Washington, by its presence, was rendered safe. 

But outside of the immediate influence of the McClellan strategy., 
& aeries of operations in the western theatre of war had been inaugu- 
rated, which laid the foundation of the splendid victories of the Unior 
arms in that quarter. While McClellan during the winter of 1861-1 
kept hi* magnificent amn i t two hundred thousand men in inaction, 
maturing plan* whi< - > i m tared, th> early ^agos o f the hi*- 



tory of the war were lit up by a succession of brilliant victories on the 
Atlantic seaboard and west of the Mississippi river. Christmas of 1861 
saw the powerful force of rebels, which had overrun Missouri, inso- 
lently proclaiming their purpose of seizing St. Louis, driven down 
to the Arkansas border. General Grant had begun on a small scale 
the operations on the Mississippi, destined to swell into campaigns of 
colossal proportions. The first of our series of coast victories had beet 
gained at Hatteras inlet, (August 27,) giving us two forts, thirty-bix 
guns, six hundred and nineteen prisoners, and the key to Albemarle 
aound. This was followed up, at the end of October, by Dupont'e 
exploit at Port Royal, one of the most memorable triumphs on record 
of ships over forK The spoils of this victory included not leaf than 
fifty cannon. 

V. 
THE SECOND YEAR OF THE WAR. 

The opening of the second year of the war was gilded by two othei 
rictoriesoB the coast — the capture of Roanoke Island by a combined 
attack of our land and naval forces, giving us six forts, 2,500 prison- 
ers and 42 guns, followed up promptly by the capture of Newbera 
which added six other forts and 34 heavy guns. These conquests re- 
stored the sovereignty of r ie flag over all the inland waters of North 
Carolina, which, up to ais time, had been the main resort of the 
srhole crew of blockade- runners. Another brilliant point in the 
chain of coast victories was added by the reduction and capitulation 
of Fort Pulaski following. With the fort were surrendered 47 gum 
and 360 prisoners. This gave us the control of the mouth of the 
Savannah river. 

Turning to the great theatre of war between the Alleghanies and 
the Mississippi, the spring of 1862 saw there the inauguration ofs 
combination of magnificent operations by several distinct column* 
drawn out from the Ohio to the mouth of the Mississippi and destined 
to carry their conquests into the very heart of the confederacy and re- 
claim the valley of the Mississippi to the soveignty of the Union. 

The rebel line of .defense on this frontier extended from Columbus 
a powerfully intrenched camp on the Mississippi, eastward to the Alle 
ghany mountains. About midway was Bowling Green, another en- 
trenched camp, where Albert Sidney Johnson commanded in person. 
Kast towards themountains was Zollicoffer with a large force, where 
^arly in the winter he had taken up a fortified position on the Cum- 

rland river near Mill Spring. 

Against this line defense Grant and the gunboats under Foote were 
preparing to move on the west; Bueli was advancing on Bowling 
Green in the centre, while Thomas was in- motion on the east near the 
mountains. Thomas struck the first blow and gave the country the 
Srstlings of victory in the west. On the 19th of January he engaged 
the rebels at Mill Spring defeated and routed them with the loss of 
their artillery, their- intrenched position, and their general, Zolliooffer, 
killed. The effect of this victory was to expose the whole rebel right 
flank by way of East Tennessee. 

On the left flank Grant and Foote were moving to break th> rebel 
haea of defend bv the Cumberland and Tennessee rvere. It was 



10 

clearly soen chat could aidse, rivers be forced, :;he great rebel Jt^ong 
noids at CoiumDus and Bowling Green woaid be taken m reverse ano 
their evacuation made a matter of absolute compulsion. But these 
nvers was barred by two strong works — Fort Henry on the Tenneset 
*nd Fort Donclson on tne Cumberland. The fanner fell '. prey to the 
gallantry of Foote's naval attack, 3urreudering on the 6th of February 
with its armament, of sixty guns. 

A. week after the surrender of Fort Henry, General Grant drew hit 
lines of investment around Fort Donelson. and ifter a conflict running 
through four days and nights, and rendered memorable by the hardest 
ighting that yet occurred in fcne war, the rebels were forced to accede 
so General Grant's demands for that ' unconditional surrender " whids 
has become so inseparably associated with his name. The surrend^- 
included fifteen thousand prisoners and forty pieces ot artillery. 

The fall of Forts Donelson and Henry promptly produced its an- 
ticipated effect Columbus, which the rebels had styled the '• Gibraltar 
jf Americ i," was immediately abandoned. At th^ same time Johnston 
evacuated his intrenched position at Bowling Green and falling back 
oo Nashville, or rather through Nashville, (for the opening of tfc. 
Oumberland to our gunboats which resulted from the fall of the fort 
made Nashville untenable ;) General Buell, whose army aad beex» 
threatening the rebel force at Bowling Green, immediately followed 
up and took possession of that city. Thus it was that by the magnifi- 
cent series ot' successes that illustrated the taring of 1862, the rebel lin* 
on * stretch of over five hundred miles w«s pushed back from th<- 
Ohio to the Oumberland and the whole state of Kentucky and a third 
of Tennessee were recovered to tUe dominions of the Union . 

Simultaneous with tht)Ae operations the waters of the Mississippi 
were lit up by the splendors of Farragut'a astonishing combat belov 
iSew Orleans with ie forts, gunboats, 3t«am rami, floating batteries, 
fire rafts, obstructions, booms and chaius which the rebels had prepared 
for the defense oi tne great metropolis of the gulf, ending in th<- 
£all of that city, whose capture the London Times, doubting, with its- 
asual cynicism its possibility, had declared would be " putting th* 
tournequet on the main artery of the confederacy." 

After their retreat from Columbus the rebels under Polk took up 
a new position on the Mississippi at Island No. Ten. This stronghold 
was able for many weeks able to hold out against all the operations 
directed against it, till finally the gunboats run the gauntlet of tht 
batteries and the stronghold with a hundred heavy guns fell into ou>- 
aands. From this point they fell back to Memphis only to be com 
oelled to abandon that city which in June following eanie under cob 
irol of the Union forces. 

After the retreat of the central army of the rebellion from Nashville. 
it took up a strongly fortified position at Corinth, under Beauregard. 
There he was beseiged by the Union army under Halleck, whose siege 
operations, pushed on to such a point as to make the capture of th? 
whole force a matter of high probability, compelled the evacuation 
of this position also. 

The result of the victories of 1862 was thus to leave the situation 
in this gratifying position : Butler was at New Orleans, Curtis was 
pushing his way to Little Rock, the capital of Arkansas, the chief point* 
on the coast was in our hands, Halleck was at Corinth, the Union 



11 

Aug waved over Memphis and Nashville, while Mitcheii ib Alabama 
was advancing from victory to victory. 

This was glory enough for one year, for if we tarn our eye to th*-. 
theatre of war in the East, we are presented with the spectacle of » 
campaign towards Richmond, in which the finest qualities of heroism 
in the army, gaining victories wherever it met the armed enemy, and 
driving him back to his capital were neutralized and rendered fruitless 
by the imbecility of its head. Turning upon McClellan, Lee termi- 
nated the offensive campaign by himself assuming the initiative, and 
carrying his army for the first time into the territory of the loyal 
States. The issue was at length tried out at Antietem, where the ab- 
sence of directing generalship could not prevent our soldiers from 
winning a victory of which their commander had not the capacity to 
take advantage. Neveitheless, the first invasion of the rebels ende<i 
disastrously by their retreat into Virginia. 

VI. 

TEE THIRD YEAR OF THE WAR— THE BATTLE SUMMER. 

The first day of the third year of the war (1863) was signalized by 
ihe battle of Stone River or Murfreesboro, fought by General Rose- 
erans on the Union side and by Bragg on the part of tie rebels. The 
most desperate battle of the war up to that period, it inaugurated the 
year of great actions by an engagement which resulted in placing our 
urmy in Murfreesbofco, with the prodigious loss to the enemy of 14,560 
men. This was to be followed up from this base by a brilliant cam- 
paign in Tennessee, destined to culminate in the possession of Chatta- 
aooga, which had long been recognized by military heads ^s the key 
o the whole theatre of war in the West. 

In the meanwhile General Grant was drawing his lines of invest- 
ment around the last great stronghold of the rebels on the Missis- 
sippi, at Vicksburg. After many attempts against this point, he 
inally, by an audacious 'stroke of strategy, unparalleled save by Na- 
poleon's passage of the Splugen, crossed his army over the Missis- 
sippi at Grand Gulf, and, dividing the army of Johnston from th«; 
possibility of reinforcing the garrison at Vicksburg, beat the rebels in 
half a dozen battles, and ended by throwing his army ws a besieging 
force around this position. The siege of Vicksburg will take its place 
in history as among the most wonderful engineering operations on 
record. It was crowned by its unconditional surrender on the 4th of 
July, with 31,720 prisoners and 234 guns. At the same time the 
garrison at Port Hudson surrendered to General Banks, thus adding 
[,000 prisoners and 40 pieces of artillerv to the account. The effect 
of these 'wo victories was to restore the national authority along tht 
whole vase "etch of the Mississippi, and that great continental high- 
way was thrown open to its embouchure in the Gulf of Mexico. 

At the very time that the right wing of our immense line of battle, 
stretching from the Potomac to the Mississippi, was thus engaged, its 
left wing, the army O t >e Potomac, was manoeuvering to meet Lee's 
second invasion of th 'oyal States. The » -b -i army ^as brought 
to bay at length at Ge*. sburg where a tnree Jays oattie, the most 
*^lo««»l of frbp war was 'o <jht ending in th^ <itfer d^at of LeA, who 



12 

was fain again to make good his retreat into Virginia with a loss of 
28,000 in killed and wounded and 6,000 prisoners. 

The centre of our great lme, held by General Roseerans, was t 
the same time on the advance. By a beautiful series of flanking mo f» 
ment8, that commander drove Bragg from his two powerfully en- 
trenched positions at Shelbyville and Tulahoma, and advancing toil 
this point, planted his army, at one splendid stroke, in the cei ra] 
citadel of the South — Chattanooga. 

On the coast, the operations were being pushed on with equal vigor. 
General Gillmore had effected a landing on Morris Island, whence, 
with his long range seige-guns, he was able to batter down Fort Sum- 
ter, leaving that memorable stronghold, whose reduction by the rebels 
was the first overt act of the war, a mass of ruins. Assisted by the 
co-operation of the iron-clad fleet, the works on Morris IslanJ. — Forte 
Wagner and Gregg — were also reduced, and they with their armament 
fell iuto our hands. The possession of Morris Island has enabled oui 
fleet ever since to keep up a blockade of Charleston which hermetically 
seals that place. 

Leaving out of view the single exception of that brief period dur- 
ing which the Napoleonjc war involved all Europe in its confiagra 
tion, you will search all history in vain for a parallel of that great 
battle summer, whether as respects the vastness of the theatre of war, 
the proportions of the contending forces, or the substantial greatnesi 
of the results. During a single period of thirty days embraced in 
this titanic epoch, not less than sixty thousand prisoners were captured. 
The losses to the enemy in this respect, added to his prodigious sacri- 
Sees in killed and wounded, left the Confederacy at the close of th* 
year bleeding, prostrate, and exhausted. 

VII. 

THE FOURTH YEAR OF THE WAR. 

The opening of the fourth year of the war saw the forces of the 
rebellion driven from the whole circumference of the Confederacy, 
and brought to definite pointsjn two armies — the army of Bragg 
on the mountain ridges south of Chattanooga, and the army of Lot 
on the Rapidan. The former assailed by General Grant in his moun- 
tain fastnesses, saw himself driven from his stronghold, and his armj 
broken and routed in the most disastrous defeat since Waterloo. He 
left in our hands 10,000 prisoners and 60 guns, suffered a loss of 
8,000 in killed and wounded, and sought shelter for his shattered foroe 
by a disordered retreat to Dalton* 

This Teview brings the catalogue of Union victories up to the 
rime of the commencement of the great campaign of this summer, 
tne events of which are too fresh in the memory of all to require any 
detailed recital. 

During the early days of May the two grand armies of the Union, 
under the supreme control of the Lieutenant General commanding 
all the armies of the United States, began their advance — the one 
from Chattanooga the other frorathe Rapidan. 

G^n >rV Sherma^ a er an ndvan -e from Cbattaioog*. o er a hun 
dred mil . marked r a seriee of brilliant manoeuvre, y d a- -ikma, 



13 

La which the enemy's force was driven from a succession of strong- 
holds looked upon as impregnable, at length planted his army in front 
of Atlanta. Here he was thrice assailed byan enemy willing to lavish 
everything in the desperate effort to drive him back. 

The enemy thrice met a bloody repulse. Sherman now began work- 
ing slowly but surely round on the rebel communications, not with a 
new to take Atlanta simply, but for the purpose of capturing the rebel 
iriny — a result from which Hood has only been saved by a precipitate 
light from Atlanta — thus abandoning the foremost city of the South- 
west, and the important communications it commands. In the en- 
gagement which resulted in this brilliant success, the rebels lost two 
thousand prisoners and very heavily in killed and wounded. It may 
aow be safely said that Hood's force, as an army, no longer exists. 

In this great campaign General Sherman has put hors die combat 
>ver forty thousand men, that is, more than half the army opposed to 
kim, besides affecting great captures in men and material. 

General Grant has planted his army before Petersburg and on the 
communications of Richmond, after a campaign of even greater magni- 
tude, marked by the most terrible and continuous fighting on record. 
During its progress he has gained a dozen victories, any one of which 
wuld have sealed the fate of any European war. Its course has been 
marked by the constant use of those double instruments of war — strat- 
egy and what Wellington called " hard pounding ;" by the former 
he has driven the enemy, by bloodless victories on our part, from six 
chosen lines of defense; by the latter he has put out of the way be- 
tween fifty and sixty thousand of the fighting veterans of the South. 
In addition he has taken over twenty-five thousand prisoners, and a 
prodigious number of guns. He is certain, ere long, to crown his 
work by the capture of the rebel capital and the destruction of the 
main rebel army. 

Finally, while the situation is as thus presented at the main points 
of war, the progress of our arms by land and sea shows equal lustre 
wherever they meet the foe. It is but the other day that Admiral Far- 
ragut capped the climax of his great achievements by the capture of 
the forts guarding the entrance to Mobile bay, the destruction or 
capture of the enemy's powerful fleet in those waters — thus sweeping 
away, it is believed, the last vestige of rebel naval power on the coast 
of the Atlantic and the Gulf. From the high seas, too, the rebel naval 
power has been swept. It is but the other day that its most formid- 
able embodiment, the Alabama, was sent to the bottom by the Kear- 
sage, affording a significant lesson both to the rebels and to the British 
allies who have furnished them with that and other proofs of their 
material support. 

VIH. 

GROUNDS OF COURAGE AND CONFIDENCE. 

After ouch a retrospect of the glorious achievements of our army 
and navy, have we not a right to ask, with some emphasis, of those 
who complain of the slow progress of the war, and fear its indefinite 
prolongation, what substantial ground they have for then repining ? It 
is true the course of the war has not been an uninterrupted succession 



14 

v>f victories ; it has presented the checquered aspect of successes ai*: 
Aeverses which all wars present. But we ask any dispassionate obse- 
rver, looking at the war by the map, and in the fiery characters i* 
which it is Writ all over the continent — contrasting the rebellion at tht 
start with the rebellion where it now stands — surveying this great 
straggle for the Union in its solid and substantial results — we ask such 
;n observer to point out in the annals of war where more has oeen 
done in the same period. He will find it hard to point out where 
as muck has been done ! It is the common practice we know in. war 
of popular Governments for men to belittle what has been done, to criti- 
cise and complain ; but we ask in all seriousness is it the part of dignity 
er of patriotism, in this crisis of our nation's struggle, to depreciat* 
it- grand and providential achievements ? 

There is to a people battling in any cause a force, purely metaphy- 
sical in its character, which is yet stronger than the sinews of war — 
stronger than the sinews of men's arms. It is courage. Never hat 
it been more needed than of late, when a fatal paralysis has benumb- 
ed the public sense, and in the eclipse of faith, "the whole noise of 
timorous and flocking birds, with those that love the twilight, flutter 
about, and in their envious gabble would prognosticate a year of sects 
•jud schisms." 

I believe we have already touched the nadir of our fears and out 
despondency, and that a breath of patriotism and hope is now vivify- 
ing the national pulse. But each man can swell the rising tide. To 
liffuse the inspiration of <x>ur8ge is the duty of every patriot. And 
happily we need draw this inspiration from no illusive fountains ; for 
the more earnestly and honestly we look at the situation, the more 
grounds of hope we find. Some of these grounds can be briefly set 
down : 

1. The body of the rebellion is moribund. Gen. T. Seymour, whose 
critical habit of thought and conservative temper, add a prodigious 
weight to any declarations he makes on this head, states as the result 
of his three months' observation in the interior of the South, that "the 
rebel cause is fast failing from exhaustion^ This is profoundly true, 
whether it has regard to the material resources in the South, or to the 
still more vital resources in men, of which the field is now reaped and 
oare. Every man and every boy is now in the field ; there is nothing 
behind. In a private letter lately written by General Grant, he used 
tne pungent expression that the rebels have u robbed the cradle and the 
grave to reinforce their armies^ 

2. It is true, \n inflicting on the rebels t'ne immense damage they 
have received in the great ca . aig ol Grant "Hti Sherman, we also 
have lost quite as severely— perhaps even more so; but (if it is lawful to 
*peak thus of so grave a mattei ) we can afford it. We can stand to 
lose man for man, till every man in the armies of the rebellion is pu* 
kors du combat, and leave behind untouched a force equal to all we 
have lost in the war. 

3. But I do not believe it will be needful to wade through such an 
ocean of blood as this. All th fc is needed is a blow that will disrupt 
the two main rebel armies. It is worthy of note, that the merciless 
conscriptions that have swept over the South have even simplified the 
problem for r . The war has no longer those thousand-fold embar- 
rassments thfct attend a national war, or war on populations. Thertf «# 



16 

•• population. Onr eaafc r- confined to beating the armies at Rich 
uoud and Atlanta. For the }cst r the southern people are tired of the 
*ar, and are sighing for pea-".?. 

4. In » military point, of view, such i* th.€ situation held by Ge». 
Qrant and Gen. Sherman, toward the insurgent forces oppi^eo to the-st, 
nat the reinforcements they are receiving, will certainly enable tbmn 
ooon to complete their work. Gen. Seymon? on ..b« head, says : 

" There is but one coarse consistent with safe* j or honor. Let. the peopl* 
wake w> a sense of their dignity and strength, and a fev. months of compar*. 
i vely trifling exertion — of such effort, as alone is worthy of the great work — 
.\rxd the rebellion will crumble before us. Fill this draft promptly and willing 
y with good and true men ; send a few spare thousands over rather than un- 
:Jar the call, and the attmnwr mm of 1866 vrill sJiine upon, a regenerated land.' 

6. The war is really near its close. The present i'ront of the rebel 
lion, menacing though it be. is really nothing more than a mask, con- 
cealing the hollownest and rottenness within The South is literally 
shausted — exhausted of that without which it is impossible to^carrr 
<>n war — exhausted of men. The field, in the impressive expression 
of Napoleon regarding France after her three conscriptions, is reaped 
uown to the stubble. Out of an available fighting population o' 
apwardp of Three-quartern of a million with which the war was inaug- 
urated, they have saveo an effective force of one hundred or one hun- 
dred and fifty thousand men. The rest are in their graves, in the 
tospitak, disabled, or prisoner* in our hands. These are the forlorn 
(ope of the rebellion. 

. 6. Our territorial conquest* have reclaimed three-fourths of the area 
• ij-tnally claimed in the 'imits of the Confederacy. The Confederacy 
lands now thrice bisected — its great lines of communication cut or 
in cur himd&. Besides, its iesoureesof all kindt are ail but exhausted. 
The desperate m«n at its head may continue the struggle for some 
«me longer — they m;y tor a while oppose a formidable front to our 
hiows — but the rebellion is doomed. Its struggles will be the frantic 
final efforts of the gladiator before he falls down exhausted and exan- 
imate, 

1. The leaders of tin. rebellion have ceased to see any hope for 
their cause m the arena oi war. They are looking now to the arena of 
ftolitic*. A party has been set up whose creed and aims have their 
entire sympathy anc moral support. The platform of that party has 
nothing but expressions of contumely for the sacred war, the recital of 
>vhich has been made; for Jeff. Davis and hir crew it has nothing but 
expressions of sympathy and respect. The people of the North have 
sow before them the momentous question >..•: de^rurining by their 
action whethes they wiJi justify all the precious blood shed in this war 
by carrying it triumphantly through and crowning it wilt a glorious 
.nd honorable peace, or wneiher by a base surrender they will project 
it into historr a. a the monument 'of a nation'* folbr. 



PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN OF 1864. 

ONION EXECUTIVE CONGRESSIONAL COMMUTE 

Ion. E. D. MORGAN, of New York j Hob. E. B. WASHBURNE, of Illinois. 
■ JAS. HARLAN, of Iowa. R. B. VAN VALKENBURG, K. Y- 

- L. M. MORRILL, of Maine. | " J. A. GARFIELD, of Ohio. 

(Senate.) " J. G. BLAINE of Maine. 

» House of Representative** 

S. D. MORGAN, Chairman. JAS. HARLAN, Treasurer. D. N. COOLEY, Bee'y 

Committee Rooms, Washington, D. C, Sept., 2, 1864. 
Dear Sir : The Union Congressional Committee, in addition to 
the documents already published, propose to issue immediately 
the following documents for distribution among the people. 

1. McClellan's Military Career Reviewed and Exposed. 

± George H. Pendleton, his Disloyal Record and Antecedents. - 

3. The Chicago Copperhead Convention, the men who composed 

and controlled it. 

4. Base surrender of the Copperheads to the Rebels in arms. 

5. The Military and Naval Situation, and the Glorious Achieve- 

ments of our Soldiers and Sailors. 

6. A Few Plain Words with the Private Soldier. 

7. What Lincoln's Administration has done. 

8. The History of McClellan's " Arbitrary Arrest " of the Mary- 
land Legislature. 

9. Can the Country Pay the Expenses of the War ! 

10. Doctrines of the Copperheads North identical with those ot 

the Rebels South. 

11. The Constitution Upheld and Maintained. 

12. Rebel Terms of Peace. 

13. Peace, to be Enduring, must be Conquered. 

14. A History of Cruelties and Atrocities of the Rebellion. 

15. Evidences of a Copperhead Conspiracy in the Northwest. 

The above documents will be printed in English and German 
in eight or sixteen page pamphlets, and sent, postage free, accord- 
ing to directions at the rate of one or two dollars per hundred 
copies. The plans and purposes of the Copperheads naving been 
disclosed by the action of the Chicago Convention, they should 
at once be laid before the loyal people of the country. There ifl 
but two months between this and the election, and leagues, clubs, 
and individuals should loose no time in sending in their orders. 
Remittances should be made in Greenbacks or drafts ou New 
York^City, payable to the order of James Harlan. 

Address — Free. 

Hon. JAMES HARLAN, 

Washington, D. C. 

Very respectfully, yours, &c, 

D. N. COOLEY, Secretary. 

Printed by Lemn«! Towers, for the Union Congressional Committee. 



■trr 



THB 



MILITAKY AND IAYAL SITUATION, 



AND THE 



GLORIOUS ACHIEVEMENTS 



OF OtTR 



SOLDIERS AND SAILORS, 



Br 



WILLIAM SWINTOK 

Washington Editor If. T. Timee, 



WASHINGTON: 

PUBLISHED BYfTHE UNION CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEE, 
1864. 






E 



453 
4- 
335*7 



THE MILITARY AND NAVAL SITUATION, AND 
THE GLORIOUS ACHIEVEMENTS OF OUR SOL- 
DIERS AND SAILORS. 



I. 

THE COURSE AND CONDUCT OF THE WAR. 

A wise maxim of the greatest general of antiquity prescribes that we 
should esteem nothing done till all is done; but it is probable that its 
sntent is rather to point out the danger of that indolent dwelling on the 
deeds of the past which shuts out of view the duties and demands of 
the present, than to discourage (especially when a great task is laid 
upon a nation) such a retrospect of what has already been accom- 
plished as will inspire courage for carrying it through to the end. 

The country has lately passed through that trying experience whieh 
history shows is sure to come upon a people plunged into a great war, 
a period when the first popular enthusiasm having died out, the bur- 
dens and the bereavements of the war are brought keenly home to all 
and a reaction of general despondency results. In this mood of the 
public mind men forget that while they have suffered the enemy also 
has suffered in an equal or even greater degree, and that too, perhaps, 
without the same ability to sustain his losses ; they forget while dwell- 
ing on their own defeats, that every victory they have won has been 
an equally sore defeat to the enemy. When this time comes then 
comes the test of the mettle of a people. If weak they sink under it ; 
but the great-minded rise up stronger for the ordeal. 

The feeling of depression which but lately prevailed legarding the 
seemingly indefinite prolongation of the War, and which is still felt by 
some, is a singular repetition of an experience which has frequently 
been felt by other nations conducting a long war. It has often hap- 
pened that men on the very eve of the conclusion ©f a war have 
looked upon it as promising the longest duration ; and it will be in 
the memory of many that just previous to the termination of the Cri- 
mean war, even as sagacious an observer as Mr. Cobden had just con- 
cluded pr<»ving in a pamphlet that it was certain to be prolonged for 
many years. It thus frequently happens that war, which in its prac- 
tical execution deals so largely in deception, is itself the greatest of 
deceptions. When after years, perhaps, of strife, great armies still con- 
front each other, it is hard to penetrate its outlet or issue ; but some 
sudden turn of affairs precipitates the catastrophe long preparing and 
in the flames of a Waterloo, a Cannas, or a Pulbowa, fabrics and sys- 
tems seemingly firm-rooted and imperishable go out in ashes and 
nothingness. 

At the outbreak of the rebellion the public mind became possessed 
with illusive anticipations that the war would be r \ short one — tb*t 
•or victorious columns sweeping the rebels before them in their tri- 



uniphant path would, in a few months at most, end by precipitating 
them into the Gulf of Mexico. This was a great delusion no doubt J 
but it was not more so than that other sentiment which has arisen 
as the natural reaction after the rude shock this hope received — the 
error as to the indefinite prolongation of the war. The one fallacy is 
as pernicious as the other; for if the first was a great bar to the effi- 
cient execution of the duty of putting down the rebellion (and there is 
no doubt that our illusions as to the ease" and speediness with which 
the work would be accomplished was a serious hinderance to the very 
preparations needed to make it short,) the other is an error equally 
fatal ; for the paralysis of effort produced by the sentiment of the 
probable longness of the war is sure to make it much longer than it 
would otherwise be. There is no higher duty, therefore, than for patri- 
otic men to fortify themselves and others by the consideration of al' 
the elements of hope and confidence which a retrospect of past prog- 
ress and a survey of the present situation inspire. 

Such a survey justifies the conclusion that the end of the war— the 
crushing of the armed forces of the rebellion — is not only not far off ; 
but that it is near at hand, and that is in our power to bring it about 
almost at a blow. 

It will show the outlines of a war continental in its proportions, 
waged on a theatre equal to the size of all Europe. 

It will show armies the greatest the world ever saw, raised and 
sustained by the spontaneous patriotism *of a free people. 

It will show how, by the progress of our arms f the area of the 
rebellion has, step by step, been shorn of three-fourths of its propor- 
tions. 

It will show the insurgent territory cut off from communication 
with the outside world by a blockade which dwarfs any on record, 
and at the same time the most perfect of any on record. 

It will show how every stronghold on the coast has either been 
captured or is now closely invested. 

It will show the interior of this territory cut up by our great lines 
of conquest, bisected latterally and longitudinally, and the dominion 
of the confederacy left a kingdom of shreds and patches. 

It will show a succession of battles of colossal magnitude, in three 
fourths of which the Union arms have triumphed, and all of which, 
whether victories or reverses, in a purely military point of view, have 
redounded to the advance of the great cause. 

It will show the manhood of a population defending free institu- 
tions, vindicating itself against years of the gibes and insqlenee born of 
the plantation. 

It will show the fighting population of the insurgent States reduced, 
by battle, by disease, and by captures, from three fourths of a million to 
between a hundred and a hundred and fifty thousand men. 

It will show this force — the forlarn hope of the rebellion — separated 
by an interval of a thousand miles, divided injto two armies, the one 
of which driven from Chattanooga to Atlanta, has at length been 
oompelled to give up that point, the material capital of the confederacy, 
while the other is shut up in Richmond, the political capital of the 
confederacy. 

It will show that the annihilation of both these armies is a mathe- 
matical certainty, if we put forth the strength at our command. 



-*#/ 



It will reveal, finally, -as the result of all this, the radiant figure of 
Peace hovering not afar off, and plainly visible through the cloud of 
war that still overspreads the land. 

If this be the magnificent result which we have to show for the 
three years of war for the Union, it will give the people of tha loyal 
States a criterion of action in the great issue now before the country — 
an issue that will determine whether by the maintenance of the Ad- 
ministration under which the war has been conducted to these results, 
and which can alone carry it through, we are willing to crown and 
justify all that has been done by a Peace that will vindicate and esta- 
blish forever the unity and integrity of the nation ; or whether we 
shall surrender our destinies into the hands of a party committed to 
a peace which makes the war foi the Union a mockery — a party whose 
creed throws to the winds all that has been achieved by the toil and 
blood, the faith and the self-sacrifice of this nation, in the most terrible 
war in the world's history, whose creed casts disgrace on every soldier 
under the sod, makes the heroic bones that on a hundred battle fields 
render the continent sacred the monuments of folly, which makes 
every sailor that has gone clown at his guns for the love of the old 
flag a fool, and every man who wears the insignia of a glorious 
wound a poor simpleton ; a creed, finally, the delusive peace result- 
ing from which can only be the beginning of unending war. 

II. 

THE TASK LAID UPON THE ADMINISTRATION BY THE 

WAR. 

When overt war, begun by the firing on Fort Sumter in April, 
1861, and brought to a head in the battle of Bull Run in the July 
following, had fairly inaugurated the rebellion against the constituted 
authorities of the United States, the Administration found itself com- 
mitted to a struggle continental in its proportions. The task imposed 
upon it, as described in President Lincoln's inaugural, was to " repos- 
sess the /oris, places and property which had been seized from the 
Union? But to do this it was needed that the embodied power of the 
Government should sweep armed resistance from the whole territory 
of the insurgent States. It is the nature of war like that of a confla- 
gration to involve and swallow up everything within its reach. The 
Southern heart " fired " by a few powerful leaders, plunged into the 
war with a recklessness akin to madness, and from the Ohio to the 
gulf; from the Potomac to the Mexican border was all aglow with 
red-hot rebellion. The Government accepted the task put upon it, for 
the people willed it, and it was the people's war. Conscious of its 
strength, arousing itself as a giant from slumber, the nation accepted 
the gage of war for the Union. 

There are, however, certain considerations which, little thought of 
at the time, entered so deeply into the militaty problem then pre- 
sented, have so influenced the course of war and count for so much in 
a proper estimate of what has been accomplished as to demand, im- 
mediate statement here. They all go to show that the task of quel- 
ling the rebellion was much more difficult than was conceived at the 
time or than is commouly appr herded even now. 

It it a commou lailacy in esiimatiu;. the .-.racunt of loice the Gov 



ernment could bring to bear on the revolted States to state' it merely 
in the ratio of the population of the two sections — twenty millions 
in the loyal States against eight in the revolting States. But it is- 
proper to consider that the rebels had withia themselves a slave popu- 
lation of over four millions, and that this population was able to car- 
ry on all their simple industries, which it required more than double 
that number to carry on the much more complicated industries of 
northern civilization. It is thus apparent that the whole fighting white- 
population of the South was vailable for service in the field, while 
nearly half of our own population was necessarily neutralized in the 
way jnst mentioned. It is not wonderful, therefore, that the rebel 
leaders were able to put into the field, at the very start, armies nearly 
equal to our own, though our own levies were unparalleled in history. 

To this must be added the astonishing ascendancy which a smalt 
minority of leading men had required over the southern population, 
and by which, when they had once usurped power, they were able t» 
wield an absolutely despotic control over all the resources of men and 
material in the South. These men, in fact, had long been preparing 
for this war, as many of them publicly confessed after the inaugura- 
tion of the rebellion. " We have," said Mr. Barnwell Rhett in a 
speech in the convention which took South Carolina out of the 
Union, " we have been engaged in this war for more than thirty years. 
It is no consequence of Lincoln's election or the failure to execute the 
fugitive slave law, but we have been engaged in this war for more than 
thirty years.' 1 '' It is a thread-bare story how Buchanan'3 infamous 
secretary had, for the last twelve months of that administration, bent 
all his energies to furnish forth the rebels with all they needed for 
their premeditated treason. It is a matter of official record that by 
, the robbery of forts and arsenals, and by purchase from abroad,, 
Floyd had distributed at various convenient points throughout the 
South 707,000 stands of arms and 200,000 revolvers. Even before 
Mr. Lincoln's inauguration there were thirty thousand men under arms 
in the South ; and two days after that inauguration the Confederate 
Congress passed a bill to raise an army of a hundred thousand men. 
And this, bear in mind, was at a time when the United States Govern- 
ment had not under its control an organized force of five thousand 
men. 

To enhance the difficulty of the task imposed on the adminis- 
tration, the theory of the war into which it was driven by the very 
nature of the contest was that of the offensive. Now military history 
is replete with illustrations of the enormous advantage which a peo- 
ple has when able to stand at bay (covering its own communications 
and holding interior lines) and await in chosen positions the attacks 
of the enemy. 

The career of Frederick the Great affords an- eminent example of 
a small nation, never able to raise an army of over a hundred thou- 
sand men, conducting a defensive war, (with offensive returns,) and 
successfully resisting for seven years the attempts of a collision of five 
of the leading Powers of Europe. But offensive operations against a 
people holding such defensive attitude becomes ten fold more difficult 
when the war becomes what is called a •' national war," the nature of 
which is thus depicted by the greatest modern writer on tbe theory of 
war, General Jomini : 



"The difficulties in the path of an army in national ware are very great, 
and render the mission of the general conducting them very arduous. The im- 
vader has only an army ; his adversaries have an army and a people wholly 
or almost wholly in arms, and making means of resistance out of everything. 
Each individual conspires against the common enemy — even the non-oombatanta 
have an interest in his ru'iD, and accelerate it by every means in their power. 
Each armed inhabitant knows the smallest paths and connections — he finda 
everywhere a relative or friend who aids him ; the commanders also know the 
oountry, and learning immediately the slightest movement on the part of the 
invader can adopt the best measures to defeat his projects." 

These embarrassments, enormously increased by the prodigious ex- 
tent of the theatre of war, the topography of which is all against the 
offensive and in favor of the defensive (as witness the immense depth 
of the lines of communicationsin any great aggressive movements, 
the impossibility of supplying our armies from the country as is done 
in Europe, etc.,) entered into the portentous problemwhich the admin- 
istration had to solve ; and yet, in face of this accumulation of difficul- 
ties, forming a task the gravest that ever met an Executive, the war 
has been pushed successfully through to the splendid results we witneaa 
— the armies of the rebellion have been driven from the vast extent 
of territory the rebels claimed till now the one is shut up in the States 
bordering on the Gulf, and the other is besieged without hope of es- 
cape to Richmond. 

IIL 

THE UPRISING OF THE NATION. 

The response of the people to the call of President Lincoln for 
men with which to execute the authority of the Government will 
always remain one of the grandest manifestations of the spontaneous 
energy of a free people in the vindication of free institutions. It was 
then we saw that sublime " uprising" of the people, when all party dif- 
ferencies were merged in enthusiastic devotion to the Union — or father 
when armed loyalty cowed and quelled secret traitors who, driven to 
their lurking places, saw the prudence of awaiting some other oppor- 
tunity to show their hands. 

After Bull Run had shown that an arduous and protracted war was 
before us, Mr. Lincoln issued his proclamation for 300,000 men. The 
response of the North to the call was without a parallel in the history 
of the world, and it was soon evident that more troops would be in 
the field than the act of Congress authorized. Within fifteen days it is 
estimated that 350,000 volunteers offered themselves in defense of our 
national flag. And from first to last, UDder the different calls, more than 
a MILLION AND A HALF of men have Been under arms in the war 
for the Union. There is in history but one example of a similar upris- 
ing of the people in defense of its nationality, and that is the rushing 
to arms of the French during the great revolution when threatened by 
the coalition. And yet the comparison only serves to show how far 
even that fell short of what we have witnessed ; for modern historian* 
have proved that, notwithstanding all the exaggerations in regard to 
the number of men raised by France at that epoeh, the figure never 
exceeded 500,000 men. Yet we have trebled that number. 

The task now before the Government was herculean, and such as 
might have made even Napoleon stand aghast. To raise and fit lor 



8 

the field an army of six hundred thousand men, to be supplied with 
all the needs of a modern army, and that too without even the skel- 
eton of a veteran force on which to build, was indeed a work of 
frightful magnitude. And yet this was accomplished in the space of 
three months — an achievement that has extorted the wonder and ad- 
miration -of military men throughout the world. 

IV. 

THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 

As the chief force of the rebellion — the head and front of the 
offending — was collected in Virginia, it became a necessity to place 
here an army of proportions fitting it to foil the purpose of the enemy 
touching the capture of our capital, at the same time to drive the 
opposing force out of Virginia. 

With this view a grand army of over 200,000 men was collected at 
Washington and placed under command of Major General G. B. Mc- 
Clellan, whose name, from a series of successful minor operations in 
Western Virginia, which another than he had planned and executed, 
had acquired a halo that did not properly belong to it. It was not 
until sometime afterwards that that constitutional inactivity, which 
seems to be a part of General McClellan's nature, and that secret sym- 
pathy with treason that has always made him tender of hurting trai- 
tors, began to be appreciated, and hence it was that for many months 
our armies were kept at a dead-lock, thus giving the rebels the oppor- 
tunity to prepare their plans, and the rebellion its best ally, time, and 
we put in a position of humiliation before the world. 

There was one result springing from the presence of our army in 
Virginia, however, which even the generalship of McClellan could not 
prevent ; it thwarted the realization of those dreams of invasion that 
had fired the southern imagination. A powerful party of red-hot bel- 
ligerents had made the carrying of the war into northern soil their ral- 
lying cry. Washington was in particular the object of their chief 
desires, and their direst hate. The rebel Secretary of War boasted at 
Montgomery, on the 12th of April, that " the flag which now flaunts 
the breeze here will float over the dome of the old Capitol at Wash- 
ington before the 1st of July." 

After Bull Rfcjp the same ambition fired these men. Said the Rich- 
mond Examiner : " From the mountain tops and valleys to the shores 
of the sea there is one wild shout of firce resolve to capture Washing- 
ton city at all and every human effort." But this " wild shout of 
fierce resolve" was vain ageinstthe 200,000 bayonets present to defend 
the capital ; and though the early history of our army in Virginia was 
not of the character the people justly expected and the army eagerly 
desired, it was at least something, in view of these desperate projects 
of the rebels, that Washington, by its presence, was rendered safe. 

But outside of the immediate influence of the McClellan strategy, 
a series of operations in the western theatre of war had been inaugu- 
rated, which laid the foundation of the splendid victories of the Union 
arms in that quarter. While McClellan during the winter of 1861-2, 
kept his magnificent army of two hundred thousand men in inaction, 
u.aturing pJans which were t.cver m. lured, thi. eaily pages of the hit- 



##3 



9 



tory of the war were lit up by a succession of brilliant victories on the 
Atlantic seaboard and west of the Mississippi river. Christmas of 1861 
saw the powerful force of rebels, which had overrun Missouri, inso- 
lently proclaiming their purpose of seizing St. Louis, driven down 
to the Arkansas border. General Grant had begun on a small scale 
the operations on the Mississippi, destined to swell into campaigns of 
colossal proportions. The first of our series of coast victories had been 
gained at Hatteras inlet, (August 27,) giving us two forts, thirty-six 
guns, six hundred and nineteen prisoners, and the key to Albemarle 
sound. This was followed up, at the end of October, by Dupont's 
exploit at Port Royal, one of the most memorable triumphs on record 
of ships over forts. The spoils oT this victory included not less than 
fifty cannon. 

V. 

THE SECOND YEAR OF THE WAR. 

The opening of the second year of the war was gilded by two other 
victorieson the coast — the capture of Roanoke Island by a combined 
attack of our land and naval forces, giving us six forts, 2,500 prison- 
ers and 42 guns, followed up promptly by the capture of Newbern 
which added six other forts and 34 heavy guns. These conquests re- 
stored the sovereignty of the flag over all the inland waters of North 
Carolina, which, up to this time, had been the main resort of the 
whole crew of blockade runners. Another brilliant point in the 
chain of coast victories was added by the reduction and capitulation 
of Fort Pulaski following. With the fort were surrendered 47 guns 
and 360 prisoners. This gave us the control of the mouth of the 
Savannah river. 

Turning to the great theatre of war between the Alleghanies and 
the Mississippi, the spring of 1862 saw there the inauguration of a 
combination of magnificent operations by several distinct columns 
drawn out from the Ohio to the mouth of the Mississippi and destined 
to carry their conquests into the very heart of the confederacy and re- 
claim the valley of the Mississippi to the soveignty of the Union. 

The rebel line of defense on this frontier extended from Columbus, 
a powerfully intrenched camp on the Mississippi, eastward to the Alle- 
ghany mountains. About midway was Bowling Green, another en- 
trenched camp, where Albert Sidney Johnson commanded in person. 
East towards themountains was Zollicoffer with a large force, where 
early in the winter he had taken up a fortified position on the Cum- 
berland river near Mill Spring. 

Against this line defense Grant and the gunboats under Foote were 
preparing to move on the west ; Buell was advancing on Bowling 
Green in the centre, while Thomas was in motion on the east near the 
mountains. Thomas struck the first blow and gave the country the 
firstlings of victory in the west. On the 19th of January he engaged 
the rebels at Mill Spring defeated and routed them with the loss of 
their artillery, their intrenched position, and their general, Zollicoffer, 
killed. The effect of this victory was to expose the whole rebel right 
flank by way of East Tennessee. 

On the left flank Grant and Foote were mov'no- to break tin- rebel 
Jines o! defense bv the Cumberland and- Tennefcsee river. «i. *a& 



10 

clearly seen that could these rivers be forced, the great rebel strong- 
holds at Columbus and Bowling Green would be taken in reverse and 
their evacuation made a matter of absolute compulsion. But these 
rivers was barred by two strong works — Fort Henry on the Tennesee 
and Fort Donelson on the Cumberland. The former fell a prey to the 
gallantry of Foote's naval attack, surrendering on the 6th of February, 
with its armament of sixty guns. 

A week after the surrender of Fort Henry, General Grant drew his 
lines of investment around Fort Donelson, and after a conflict running 
through four days and nights, and rendered memorable by the hardest 
fighting that yet occurred in the war, the rebels were forced to accede 
to General Grant's demands for that "-unconditional surrender " which 
has become so inseparably associated with his name. The surrender 
included fifteen thousand prisoners and forty pieces of artillery. 

The fall of Forts Donelson and Henry promptly produced its an- 
ticipated effect. Columbus, which the rebels had styled the " Gibraltar 
of Americ," was immediately abandoned. At the same time Johnston 
evacuated his intrenched position at Bowling Green and falling back 
to Nashville, or ralher through Nashville, (for the opening of the 
Cumberland to our gunboats which resulted from the fall of the fort 
made Nashville untenable ;) General Buell, whose army had been 
threaten^* the rebel force at Bowling Green, immediately followed 
up and took possession of that city. Thus it was that by the magnifi- 
cent series of successes that illustrated the spring of 1862, the rebel line 
on a stretch of over five hundred miles was pushed back from the 
Ohio to the Cumberland and the whole state of Kentucky and a third 
of Tennessee were recovered to the dominions of the Union. 

Simultaneous with these operations the waters of the Mississippi 
were lit up by the splendors of Farragut's astonishing combat below 
New Orleans with the forts, gunboats, steam rams, floating batteries, 
fire rafts, obstructions, booms and chains which the rebels had prepared 
for the defense of the great metropolis of the gulf, ending in the 
fall of that city, whose capture the London Times, doubting, with its 
usual cynicism, its possibility, had declared would be " putting the 
tournequet on the main artery of the confederacy." 

After their retreat from Columbus the rebels under Polk took up 
a new position on the Mississippi at Island No. Ten. This stronghold 
was able for many weeks able to hold out against all the operations 
directed against it, till finally the gunboats run ' the gauntlet of the 
batteries and the stronghold with a hundred heavy guns fell iuto our 
hands. From this point they fell back to Memphis only to be com- 
pelled to abandon that city which in June following came under con- 
trol of the Union forces. 

After the retreat of the central army of the rebellion from Nashville, 
it took up a strongly fortified position at Corinth, under Beauregard. 
There he was beseiged by the Union army under Halleck, whose siege 
operations, pushed on to such a point as to make the capture of the 
whole force a matter of high probability, compelled the evacuation 
of this position also. 

• The result of the victories of 1862 was thus to leave the situation 
in this gratifying position : Butler was at New Orleans, Curtis "was 
pushing his way to Little Rock, the capital of Arkansas, the chief points 
on the coast was in our hands, Halleck was at Corinth, the Union 



<¥&¥ 



11 

flag waved over Memphis and Nashville, while Mitchell in Alabama 
was advancing from victory to victory. 

This was glory enough for one year, for if we turn our eye to the 
thf&tre of war in the East, we are presented with the spectacle of a 
campaign towards Richmond, in which the finest qualities of heroism 
in the army, gaining victories wherever it met Ihe armed enemy, and 
driving him back to his capital were neutralized and rendered fruitless 
by the imbecility of its head. Turning upon McClellan, Lee termi- 
nated the offensive campaign by himself assuming the initiative, and 
carrying his army for the first time into the territory of the loyal 
States. The issue was at length tried out at Antietem, where the ab- 
sence of directing generalship could cot prevent our soldiers from 
winning a victory of which their commander had not the capacity to 
take advantage. Nevertheless, the first invasion of the rebels ended 
disastrously by their retreat into Virginia. 

VI. 

THE .THIRD YEAR OF THE WAR— THE BATTLE SUMMER. 

The first day of the third year of the war (1863) was signalized by 
the battle of Stone River or Murfreesboro, fought by General Rose- 
crans on the Union side and by Bragg on the part of the rebels. The 
most desperate battle of the war up to that period, it inaugurated the 
year of great actions by an engagement which resulted in placing our 
army in Murfreesboro, with the prodigious loss to the enemy of 14,560 
men. This was to be followed up from this base by a brilliant cam- 
paign in Tennessee, destined to culminate in the possession of Chatta- 
nooga, which had long been recognized by military heads as the key 
to the whole theatre of war in the West. 

In the meanwhile General Grant was drawing his lines of invest- 
ment around the last great stroughold of the rebels on the Missis- 
sippi, at Vicksburg. After many attempts against this point, he 
finally, by aa audacious stroke of strategy, unparalleled save by Na- 
poleon's passage of the Splugen, crossed his army over the Missis- 
sippi at Grand Gulf, and, dividing the army of Johnston from the 
possibility of reinforcing the garrison at Vicksburg, beat the rebels in 
half a dozen battles, and ended by throwing his army rs a besieging 
force around this position. The siege of Vicksburg will take its place 
in history as among the most wonderful engineering operations on 
record. It was crowned by its unconditional surrender on the 4th of 
July, with 31,720 prisoners and 234 guns. At the same time the 
garrison at Port Hudson surrendered to General Banks, thus adding 
7,000 prisoners and 40 pieces of artillery to the account. The effect 
of these two victories was to restore the national authority along the 
whole vast stretch of the Mississippi, and that great continental high- 
way was thrown open to its embouchure in the Gulf of Mexico. 

At the very time that the right wing of our immense line of battle, 
stretching from the Potomac to the Mississippi, was thus engaged, its 
left wing, the army of the Potomac, was manoeuvering to meet Lee's 
second invasion of the loyal States. The rebel army was brought 
to bay at length at Gettysburg where a three days battle, the most 
colossal of the war was fought, ending in the utter defeat of Lee, who 



12 

was fain again to make good his retreat into Virginia with a loss of 
23,000 in killed and wounded and 6,000 prisoners. 

The centre of our great line, held by General Rosecrans, was at 
the same time on the advance. By a beautiful series of flanking move- 
ments, that commander drove Bragg from his two powerfully en- 
trenched positions at Shelbyville and Tulahoma, and advancing from 
this point, planted his army, at one splendid stroke, in the central 
citadel of the South — Chattanooga. 

On the coast, the operations were being pushed on with equal vigor. 
General Gilimore had effected a landing on Morris Island, whence, 
with his long range seige-guns, he was able to batter down Fort Sum- 
ter, leaving that memorable stronghold, whose reduction by the rebels 
was the first overt act of the war, a mass of ruins. Assisted by the 
co-operation of the iron-clad fleet, the works on Morris Island — Forts 
Wagner and Gregg — were also reduced, and they with their armament 
fell into our hands. The possession of Morris Island has enabled our 
fleet ever since to keep up a blockade of Charleston which hermetically 
seals that place. # 

Leaving out of view the single exception of that brief period dur- 
ing which the Napoleonic war involved all Europe in its confbigra- 
tion, you will search all history in vain for a parallel of that great 
battle summer, whether as respects the vastness of the theatre of war, 
the proportions of the contending forces, or the substantial greatness 
of the results. During a single period of thirty days etnbiaced in 
this titanic epoch, not less than sixty thousand prisoners were captured. 
The losses to the enemy in this respect, added to his prodigious sacri- 
fices in killed and wounded, left the Confederacy at the close of the 
year bleeding, prostrate, and exhausted. 

VII. 

THE FOURTH YEAR OF THE WAR. 

The opening of the fourth year of the war saw the forces of the 
rebellion driven from the whole circumference of the Confederacy, 
and brought to definite pointsjn two armies — the army of Bragg 
on the mountain ridges south of Chattanooga, and the army of Lee 
on the Rapidan. The former assailed by General Grant in his moun- 
tain fastnesses, saw himself driven from his stronghold, and his army 
broken and routed in the most disastrous defeat since Waterloo. He 
left in our hands 10,000 prisoners and 60 guns, suffered a loss of 
8,000 in killed and wounded, and sought shelter for his^hattered force 
by a disordered retreat to Dalton. 

This review brings the catalogue of Union victories up to the 
time of the commencement of the great campaign of this summer, 
the events of which are too fresh in the memory of all to require any 
detailed recital. 

During the early days of May the two grand armies of the Union, 
under the supreme control of the Lieutenant General commanding 
all the armies of the United States, began their advance — the one 
from Chattanooga the other fromthe Rapidan. 

Genera: Sherman after an advance from Chattanooga, over a hun- 
the i miles, marked by a series ol brilliant msi onivrf.s and action.-,, 



13 

in which the enemy's force was driven from a succession of strong- 
holds looked upon as impregnable, at length planted his army in front 
of Atlanta. Here he was thrice assailed byan enemy willing to lavish 
everything in the desperate effort to drive him back. 
iSj^The enemy thrice met a bloody repulse. Sherman now began work- 
ing slowly but surely round on the rebel communications, not with a 
view to take Atlanta simply, but for the purpose of capturing the rebel 
army — a result from which Hood has only been saved by a precipitate 
flight from Atlanta — thus abandoning the foremost city of the South- 
west, and the important communications it commands. In the en- 
gagement which resnlted jn this brilliant success, the rebels lost two 
thousand prisoners and very heavily in killed and wounded. It may 
now be safely said that Hood's force, as an army, no longer exists. 

In this great campaign General Sherman has put hors du combat 
over forty thousand men, that is, more than half the army opposed to 
him, besides affecting great captures in men and material. 

General Grant has planted his army before Petersburg and on the 
communications of Richmond, after a campaign of even greater magni- 
tude, marked by the most terrible and continuous fighting on record. 
During its progress he has gained a dozen victories, any one of which 
would have sealed the fate of any European war. Its course has been 
marked by the constant use of those double instruments of war — strat- 
egy and what Wellington called "hard pounding;" by the former 
he has driven the enemy, by bloodless victories on our part, from six 
chosen lines of defense; by the latter he has put out of the way be- 
tween fifty and sixty thousand of the fighting veterans of the South. 
In addition he has taken over twenty-five thousand prisoners, and a 
prodigious number of guns. He is certain, ere long, to crown his 
work by the capture of the rebel capital and the destruction of the 
main rebel army. 

Finally, while the situation is as thus presented at the main points 
of war, the progress of our arms by land and sea shows equal lustre 
wherever they meet the fo.e. It is but the other day that Admiral Far- 
ragut capped the climax of his great achievements by the capture of 
the forts guarding the entrance to Mobile bay, the destruction or 
capture of the enemy's powerful fleet in those waters — thus sweeping 
away, it is believed, the last vestige of rebel naval power on the coast 
of the Atlantic and the Gulf. From the high seas, too, the rebel naval 
power has been swept. It is but the other day that its most formid- 
able embodiment, the Alabama, was sent to the bottom by the Kear- 
sage, affording a significant lesson both to the rebels and to the British 
allies who have furnished them with that and other proofs of their 
material support. 

VIII. 

GROUNDS OF COURAGE AND CONFIDENCE. 

After such a retrospect of the glorious achievements of pur army 
and navy, have we not a right to ask, with some emphasis, of those 
who complain of the slow progress of the war, and ft ar its indefinite 
prolongation, what substantial ground they have for their repining ? It 
is true the course of the war has not been an uninterrupted succession 



14 

of victories ; it has presented the checquered aspect of successes and 
reverses which all wars present. But we ask any dispassionate obse- 
rver, looking at the war by the map, and in the fiery characters in 
which it is writ all over the continent — contrasting the rebellion at the 
start with the rebellion where it now stands — surveying this great 
struggle for the Union in its solid and substantial results — we ask such 
an observer to point out in the annals of war where more has been 
done in the same period. He will find it hard to point out where 
as much has been done ! It is the common practice we know in war 
of popular Governments for men to belittle what has been done, to criti- 
cise and complain ; but we ask in all seriousness is it the part of dignity 
or of patriotism, in this crisis of our nation's struggle, to depreciate t 
its grand and providential achievements? 

There is to a people battling in any cause a force, purely metaphy- 
sical in its character, which is yet stronger than the sinews of war — 
stronger than the sinews of men's arms. It is courage. Never has 
it been more needed than of late, when a fatal paralysis has benumb- 
ed the public sense, and in the eclipse of faith, " the whole noise of 
timorous and flocking birds, with those that love the twilight, flutter 
about, and in their envious gabble would prognosticate a year of sects 
and schisms." 

I believe we have already touched the nadir of our fears and our 
despondency, and that a breath of patriotism and hope is now vivify- 
ing the national pulse. But each man can swell the rising tide. To 
diffuse the inspiration of courage is the duty of every patriot. And 
happily we need draw this inspiration from no illusive fountains ; for 
the more earnestly and honestly we look at the situation, the more 
grounds of hope we find. Some of these grounds can be briefly set 1 
down : 

1. The body of the rebellion is moribund. Gen. T. Seymour, whoso 
critical habit of thought and conservative temper, add a prodigious 
weight to any declarations he makes on this head, states as the result 
of his three months' observation in the interior of the South, that "the 
rebel cause is fast failing from exhaustion." This is profoundly true, 
whether it has regard to the material resources in the South, or to the 
still more vital resources in men, of which the field is now reaped and 
bare. Every man and every boy is now in the field ; there is nothing 
behind. In a private letter lately written by General Grant, he used 
the pungent expression that the rebels have "robbed the cradle and the 
grave to reinforce their armies.'' 1 

2. It is true, in inflicting on the rebels the immense damage they 
have received in the great campaigns of Grant and Sherman, we also 
have lost quite as severely — perhaps even more so; but (if it is lawful to 
speak thus of so grave a matter) we can afford it. We can stand to 
lose man for man, till every man in the armies of the rebellion is put 
hors du combat, and leave behind untouched a force equal to all we 
have lost in the war. 

3. But I do not believe it will be needful to wade through such an 
ocean of blood as this. All that is needed 5b a blow that will disrupt 
the two main rebel armies. It is worthy of note, that the merciless 
conscriptions that have swept over the South have even simplified the 
problem for us. The war has no longer those thousand-fold embar- 
rassments that attend a national war, or war on populations. There ' 



///? 



15 

no population. Our task is confined to beating the armies at Rich- 
mond and Atlanta. For the rest, the southern people are tired of the 
war, and are sighing for peace. 

4. In a military point of view, such is the situation held by Gen. 
Grant and Gen! Sherman, toward the insurgent forces opposed to them, 
that the reinforcements they are receiving, will certainly enable them 
soon to complete their work. Gen. Seymour on this head, says : 

"There is but one course con siatent with safety or honor. Let the people 
awake to a sense of their dignity and strength, and a few months of compara- 
tively trifliug exertion — of such effort as alone is worthy of the great work — 
and the rebellion will crumble before us. Fill this draft promptly and willing- 
ly, with good and true men ; Bend a few spare thousands over rather than un- 
der the call, and the summer sun of 1865 will shine upon a regenerated land." 

5. The war is really near its close. The present front of the rebel- 
lion, menacing though it be, is really nothing moie than a mask, con- 
cealing the hollowness and rottenness within. The South is literally 
exhausted — exhausted of that without which it is impossible to carry 
on war — exhausted of men. The field, in the impressive expression 
of Napoleon regarding France after her three conscriptions, is reaped 
down to the stubble. Out of an available fighting population of 
upwards of three-quarters of a million with which the war was inaug- 
urated, they have saved an effective force of one hundred or one hun- 
dred and fifty thousand men. The rest are in their giaves, in the 
hospitals, disabled, or prisoners in our hands. These are the forlorn 
hope of the rebellion. 

6. Our territorial conquests have reclaimed three-fourths of the area 
originally claimed in the limits of the Confederacy. The Confederacy 
stands now thrice bisected — its great lines of communication cut or 
in our hands. Besides, its resources of all kinds are all but exhausted. 
The desperate men at its head may continue the stiugglefor some 
time longer — they may for a while oppose a formidable front to our 
blows — but the rebellion is doomed. Its struggles will be the frantic 
final efforts of the gladiator before he falls down exhausted and exan- 
imate. 

7. The leaders of the rebellion have ceased to see any hope for 
their cause in the arena of war. They are looking now to the arena of 
politics. A party has been set up whose creed and aims have their 
entire sympathy and moral support. The platform of that party has 
nothing but expressions of contumely for the sacied war, the recital of 
which has been made; for Jeff. Davis and his crew it has nothing but 
expressions of sympathy and respect. The people of the North have 
now before them the momentous question of determining by their 
action whether they will justify all the precious blood shed in this war 
by carrying it triumphantly through and crowning it with a gloriCu* 
and honorable peace, or whether by a base surrender they will projeGt 
it into history as the monument of a nation's folly. 



PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN OF 1864. 

UNION EXECUTIVE CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEE. 



Hon. E. B. WASHBURNE, of Illinois. 
" R. B. VAN VALKENBURG, N. Y. 
" J. A. GARFIELD, of Ohio. 
" J. G. BLAINE, of Maine. 

House of Representatives. 

E. D. MORGAN, Chairman. JAS. HARLAN, Treasurer. D. N. COOLEY, Sec'y 



Hon. E. D. MORGAN, of New York. 
" JAS. HARLAN, of Iowa. 
" L. M. MORRILL, of Maine. 
(Senate.) 



Committee Rooms, Washington, D. C, Sept., 2, 1864. 
Dear Sir : The Union Congressional Committee, in addition to 
the documents already published, propose to issue immediately 
the following documents for distribution among the people. 

1. McClellan's Military Career Reviewed and Exposed. 

2. George H. Pendleton, his Disloyal Record and Antecedents. 

3. The Chicago Copperhead Convention, the men who composed 

and controlled it. 

4. Base surrender of the Copperheads to the Rebels in arms. 

5. The Military and Naval Situation, and the Glorious Achieve- 

ments of our Soldiers and Sailors. 

6. A Few Plain Words with the Private Soldier. 

7. What Lincoln's Administration has done. 

8. The History of McClellan's " Arbitrary Arrest " of the Mary- 

land Legislature. 

9. Can the Country Pay the Expenses of the War ? 

10. Doctrines of the Copperheads North identical with those of 

the Rebels South. 

11. The Constitution Upheld and Maintained. 

12. Rebel Terms of Peace. 

13. Peace, to be Enduring, must be Conquered. 

14. A History of Cruelties and Atrocities of the Rebellion. 

15. Evidences of a Copperhead Conspiracy in the Northwest. 

The above documents will be printed in English and German 
in eight or sixteen page pamphlets, and sent, postage free, accord- 
ing to directions at the rate of one or two dollars per hundred 
copies. The plans and purposes of the Copperheads having been 
disclosed by the action of the Chicago Convention, they should 
at once be laid before the loyal people of the country. There is 
but two months between this and the election, and leagues, clubs, 
an 1 individuals should loose no time in sending in their orders. 
Remittances should be made in Greenbacks or drafts on New 
York a City, payable to the order of James Harlan. 

Address — Free. 

Hon. JAMES HARLAN, 

Washington, J}. C. 

Very respectfully, yours, &c, 

D. N. COOLEY, Secretary. 



Printed by Lemuel Towers, for the Union Congressional Committee. 



A. FEW PLAIN "WORDS 



RANK AND FILE OF THE UNION AMIES. 

— ) 



Published by the Union Congressional Committee. 



I. 

Napoleon wittily warned governments to " beware when bayonets should 
learn to think ; " but with us, far from being a subject of fear, it is our glory and 
pride that t-he war for the Union has been upheld by a million of u thinking 
bayonets." Despots may tremble when the bayonets that sustain their throne* 
learn to think ; but when free men rise in arms to defend free institutions, what 
" thinking" can be more true, more wise, more patriotic than theirs ? 

It is thinking bayonets that compose our army. It is " thinking " thai 
inspired those bayonets; and it is because they are in the grasp of thinking 
men that they are clothed with all their majesty and power. When dark days 
have come upon our land, when the sibilant tongue of the copperhead has beer* 
heard to hiss his base whispers of surrender, when the wisest could not see their 
way clear, and the hearts of the most patriotic sunk within them, hope anc 
light and courage have flashed forth from the gleam of those same thinking 
bayonets. 

It is you, Oh million of thinking bayonets, that have led the way, that have 
shamed our puisillanimity, that have taught the nation what patriotism ie. 
If Peace now begins to dawn on our land, it is because through four years of 
dread war, in bright and dark days, you have carried the Union in your hearts 
and on your bayonets. When peace comes it will be honorable and lasting be- 
cause your bayonets have made it so ; and yours will be the glory and the 
honor. u When the war closes," says the great captain who has led the army 
of the West from Chattanooga to Atlanta, in a letter lately written to a humble 
private soldier in his army : " When the war closes I will, if I survive it, make it 
my study to give full honor and credit to the soldiers in the ranks, who, though 
in humble capacity, have been the working hands by which the nation's honor 
and manhood have been vindicated." 



5*5 
,r 
rR35l ' 2 

The voice of the nation re-affirms this declaration of General Sherman. His- 
tory will celebrate as the true heroes of the grand War for the Union not those 
who have held the high places of command, but those hundreds of thousands 
of what Kossuth called " nameless heroes " — the rank and file of our armies, 
*ho, shoulder to shoulder and touching elbows, have carried the war through to 
results which ensure its glorious consummation. 

II. 

If ever there was a time when Union bayonets were called on to think, it is 
aow. The crisis of the war, when our armies have the rebellion in their grasp 
and are preparing to deal its death-blow, finds the country precipitated into the 
curmoil of a Presidential election. This election touches you, because in be- 
coming soldiers you did not cease to be citizens ; but it touches you even more 
olosely than it does those of us who are merely citizens and not soldiers: for 
die issue is presented whether this war for the Union in which you are battling 
is a delusion and a mockery — whether the priceless blood shed shall go for no 
more than water spilt on the ground — whether you shall lay down your arms 
and sue rebels to make on their terms the peace you thought your valor had 
nearly won. That you may see this and no other is the real issne which will 
be tried on the 8th day of November next — read with all the care you can com- 
taand the creed of the two candidates claiming your suffrages : 

The Union platform resolves : 

That it is the highest duty of every American citizen to maintain against all their ene 
nies the integrity of Union, and the paramount authority of the Constitution and laws 
A the United States, and that laying aside all differences and political opinions, we pledge 
ourselves as Union men, animated by a Common sentiment, and aiming at a common ob- 
ject, to do everything in our power to aid the Government in quelling by force of arms 
the rebellion now raging against its authority, and in bringing to the punishment due to 
Jieir crimes the rebels and traitors arrayed against it. 

That we approve the determination of the Government of the United States not to 
♦ompromise with rebels or to offer any terms of peace except such as may be based 
ipon an " UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER " of their hostility and a return to their just 
dlegiance to the Constitution and the laws of the United States ; and that we call 
ipon the Government to maintain this position and to prosecute the war with the ut- 
possible vigor to the most complete suppression of the rebellion, in full reliance upon 
he self-sacrifice, the patriotism, the heroic valor and the undying devotion of the Ameri- 
«an people to their country and its free institutions. 

That the thanks of the American people are due to the soldiers and sailors of the 
irmy and navy, who have periled their lives in defense of their eountry and in vin- 
iication of the honor of the flag; that the nation owes to them some permanent 
.■eeognition of their patriotism and their valor, and ample and permanent provision 
far those of their survivors who have received disabling and and honorable wounds in 
the service of the country : and that the memories of those who have fallen in its 
iefense shall be held in grateful and everlasting remembrance. 

The Copperhead platform resolves : 

That this convention does explicitly declare as the sense of the American people that 
ifter FOUR YEARS OF FAILURE TO RESTORE THE UNION BY THE EXPERI- 
VIENT OF WAR, during which, under the pretence of a military necessity, or war 
^ower higher than the Constitution, the Constitution itself has been disregarded in 
ivery part, and public liberty and private right alike trodden down, and the material 
prosperity of the country essentially impaired, justice, humanity, liberty, and the publie 
welfare demand that IMMEDIATE EFFORT BE MADE FOR A CESSATION OF HOS- 
TILITIES, with a view to an ultimate convention of all the States, or other peaceable 
means, to the end that at the earliest practicable moment peace may be restored on 
he basis of the Federal Union of the States. 

There are other declarations made in each ; but they do not touch essentials. 
The vital principle in each case is contained in these utterances. 

The former, it need not be said, is the platform on which it is proposed 



Abraham Lincoln shall continue for another term the administration of the 
government. The latter is the platform on which George B. McClellan cornea 
forward to claim your suffrages and those of the nation. 

T c issue i here drawn in such clear and palpable lines that no man — far 
less any soldier — can mistake it. It is not a personal issue. It is not a questior 
whether Abraham Lincoln or George B. McClellan shall be President. It is 
a question whether or not we shall have a Constitution and a country left us. 

The prime points in the Chicago copperhead platform — those which give iu 
distinctive character — are these : 

1. The assertion of our "failure to restore the Union by the experiment oj 
war? 

2. The demand that " immediate efforts be made for a cessation of hostilities.* 
The copperhead creed very properly joins these assertions in the relation of 

logical sequence : that is, " immediate efforts should be made for a cessation of 
hostilities " because u the experiment of war " has been a " failure." Tht 
premises granted, the conclusion naturally follows. 

But suppose you do not grant it — suppose a voice, which is already audible if 
the air, mingling the fierce protests of indignant men with the dread clamor of 
triumphant artillery and vollied thunders along the line, rolls up from Petersburg 
to Atlanta and from Atlanta to Mobile Bay, to hurl back the slander that dare* 
thus belittle your matchless achievements. We tell you, soldiers, that voice h 
echoed back by a nation that thinks with you that a war which in three yean 
has reclaimed from the rebels three-fourths of a territory as large as all Europe, 
has driven their armies from point to point, beaten them in scores of the great- 
est battles on record, reduced their whole fighting material from more that 
three-quarters of a million to between a hundred and a hundred and fifty thou- 
sand, captured their chief cities, destroyed their great lines of communication 
and now holds their whole coast in strictest blockade, will need some othe' 
word than "failure" to sum up its swelling content and result. " Failure ir 
the experiment of war," forsooth ! It is an insult to your glorious deeds anc 
your glorious dead, and could only have been used by men with whom th« 
wish of " failure" was father to the thought. 

In what magnificent contrast with the slanderous falsehoods of these misera- 
ble men stand the declarations lately made by the Lieutenant General com- 
manding the armies of the United States ! Standing on an eminence whence 
he surveys the whole continental field of battle, whence his eyes take in all th< 
elements that enter into the dread problem of war, he affirms that the rebellion ii 
doomed, that the rebel armies are all but used up, and that the one thing needed to 
u secure an early restoration of the Union is a determined unity of sentiment at tht 
North." " The rebels," says he, M have now in their ranks their last, man. Th« 
little boys and old men are guarding prisoners, guarding railroad bridges, anc 
forming a good part of their garrisons or intrenched positions. A man lost bj 
them cannot be replaced. They have robbed the cradle and the grave equalh 
to get their present force. Besides what they lose in frequent skirmishes and 
battles, they are now losing from desertions and other causes at least one regi- 
ment per day. With this drain upon them, the end is not far distant, if we 
will only be true to ourselves. Their only hope now is in a divided North? 
It is in this state of facts, when the life-blood of the rebellion is ebbing away, 
when our victorious columns are marching on from victory to victory, wheii 
the soul of the nation is stirred and vivified with a breath of the old-time patrv 
otic fire, when the Government finds the revival of the volunteer spirit such 
(reaching from five to ten thousand recruits per day) that it ean afford to dis- 
pense with the operations of the draft as a slower recruiting agent than the 
spontaneous patriotism of the people presents, — it is amid this inspiring present- 



ment of material and moral elements that the resolutions of a great convention 
propose that "immediate efforts be made for a cessation of hostilities"! Is this 
the sober utterance of men claiming to control the destinies of a great nation, 
or is it only a piece of hideous and untimely irony ? You are to turn back, you 
victorious columns that have pushed the lines of imperial conquest from Chat- 
tanooga- to Atlanta and driven the army of the rebellion in rout and demorali- 
sation to the borders of the Gulf; you are to loose your hold on t v he vital com- 
munications of the enemy, you, veterans of Virginia, that have fought your 
*ay to where you stand in a campaign that makes historic wars a plaything 
*uid marks your path from the Rapidan to the James in characters of blood 
*nd flame, — all, all are to retire and allow copperheads and conspirators to 
lettle, over the graves of Union soldiers fallen in a useless war, the terms of sur- 
render to Jeff. Davis and his crew. Such are copperhe ad principles, such is 
the copperhead platform. 

III. 

In the sad total of "failure in the experiment of war," which you will first 
'earn from the creed of Chicago sums up the history of four years, you are invit- 
ed by its framers to accept their — " sympathy. You have, according to the doc- 
trines and declarations of these men, not on] j failed, but you have bean fooled. 
Your love of the old flag, your determination to defend it, your hatred of treason, 
your deathless patriotism are mere fancy and fustian, the great army of mar- 
tyrs that have offered up their lives a willing sacrifice on the altar of the Union 
,vere poor simpletons, the tens of thousands of your comrades who pine in 
rebel prisons, and the hundreds of thousands who bear about in their bodies 
".he insignia of glorious wounds are deluded victims — and in this unhappy pre- 
dicament you are offered their profound "sympathy." Sympathy — it is a pre- 
cious quality ; but there are times when it is the most stinging of insults. We 
can fancy the feelings with which the war-worn veterans of Grant and Sherman 
will receive this gushing tender of copperhead "sympathy." From the enemy 
in your front you have won something more than sympathy: you have extort- 
id his respect, and you rightly regard this as much more valuable than the 
;ollow commisseration of copperheads. For their sympathy, the Chicago reso- 
lutions sufficiently show where that goes. Men who have nothing but contum- 
ely. for the government you are defending, and whose declaration of principles 
contains not a word against treason and rebellion, not a syllable about the in- 
ternal treatment of our prisoners by the rebels, not a whisper of reproof for the 
;rime of those southern politicians which has desolated half a continent, show 
tkeir hands too plainly to blind you as to the real drift of their "sympathy." 
"fou will indignantly tell them to take it where it will be better appreciated and 
aot awaken that disgust which it must stir in the breast of every patriotic 
soldier. 

IV. 

The Copperheads know your sentiments. They know that the army is sound 
and incorruptible. They know that there has been no time during the past 
;hree years that you would not as lief fight them as fight rebels — no time that 
/ou would not willingly leave the enemy in your front to attend to the equally 
oase, but far less brave, enemy in your rear. 

It is for this reaeon that they will court you, and try to wheedle you. They 
snow that their doctrines are a stench in your nostrils They will try to Ir-de 
his by pretence and palaver. They are huckstering for the army vote. The 
Copperheads at Chicago carried the platform, nominated Pendleton, one of 



their rankest members (who has opposed the army and the war in every vote of 
his in Congress,) as Vice President, and, to blind you, put up McClellan as 
President. This is a rusede guerre. They care nothing for McClellan — he is 
with them only " a name to conjure by," a tub thrown to the whale. They 
calculate that there are many men in our armies who will vote for McClellan 
anyhow. It does not occur to them that you look beneath the surface, that you 
penetrate the real issiie, that this issue is the country's salvation and that you 
prefer your country's salvation before the fortunes of any man. American 
soldiers are not the material out of which to make a Pretorian guard on whose 
bayonets any man can be hoisted into power. 

The armies outside of the Army of the Potomac never were affected by the 
McClellan mani.^. The men who have fought with Grant, campaigned with 
Rosecrans and marched with Sherman, are not the men to fall in love with 
McClellan's feeble and fruitless style of warfare. A nation that has shared in 
the glories of Vicksburg and Stone River and Chattanooga and Atlanta has got 
a long ways beyond the point of being deluded by bombastic " changes of 
base" and "masterly inactivity." 

But of the old soldiers of the Potomac army, there are still doubtless many 
left who retain those trillions that time and events have long since effaced Worn 
the memories of men. Around the bivouac, in the loll of long summer days, 
or in the close contact of the winter's tent, you hear these "men tell of the 
" Young Napoleon " and his career. Prejudices and predilections, natural to 
them but nothing to you, gradually, by force of repetition, steal their way into 
your minds. Falsehoods, innocently believed by the old men, but of which 
you have no means of knowing the falsity, are told you — perhaps believed by 
you. You are told how the Administration thwarted McClellan's plans, withheld 
promised troops, threw, obstacles in his path, and ensured defeat where he had 
organized victory. 

Under another issue than that to-day presented to the country and to the army, 
these questions might be in place. It might be in place to inquire whether 
General McClellan was a great military genius, as some believe, or an incompe- 
tent and blunderer, as others believe; whether the men and materia! 
needed to make his campaigns successful were withheld from him, or whether 
he had lavished upon him the generous resources of the nation ; whether, the 
Administration is blameable for removing him when it did, or whether it is 
blameable for not sooner discovering his incompetence. These are interesting 
questions no doubt, and they will long be discussed with the warmth of parti- 
san affection and the bitterness of partisan hate. But they are not in issue just 
now. For our individual part, we believe the record of the Administration to 
be singularly clear on all these points. We believe McClellan to be neither a 
great general nor an aggrieved man. We see nothing in his career, either of 
talent, character, or success that fits him to be President of the United States. 
But let that pass. It is not a question of his merits or his demerits. It is a 
question of the principles which he represents. McClellan might have the 
purity of a Washington, the statesmanship of a Pitt, and the generalship of a 
Napoleon, yet did he not plant himself fair and square on the issue of the life 
or death of this nation, he and his claims would pass for nothing. 

V. 

McClellan, after a delay, the length of which showed the extreme unpopu- 
larity of the of the platform on which he was nominated, accepted the nomina- 
tion of the Chicago Convention. His declaration of principles had been anx- 
iously looked for, because he had put himself on record in letters to army his 



6 

friends, that he could only consent to run on a war platform. Would he re- 
nounce the platform and thereby renounce the candidacy, or would he accept 
the platform and ruin himself? The solution of this perplexing problem, given 
by McClellan in his letter of acceptance, only serves to show the insuperable 
difficulties that attend his position, and the impossibility of securing votes 
enough to elect him without making dupes of the one or the other faction of 
the party to which he looks for support. 

The issue made by the Chicago platform is cleir and unrnistakeable, and de- 
manded to be met with downright assent or dissent. On this McClellan palt- 
ers in a double sense, keeping the pronrse of patriotism to the ear aud breaking 
it to the heart. Whether he thinks "the experiment of war a failure" or not, 
is impossible to determine. He expresses the opinion that the war should have 
been carried on in a different way from what it has been. There is no 
end of people who think the same way. For a year and a-half we 
tried his way of carrying on war, and we submit how much of the 
" failure in the experiment " is due to himself. We have since car- 
ried on war in a quite other way ; and so far from seeing "failure," we find 
a'l around the horizon of the war the signs and symbols of magnificent a«d 
accumulating success. We think your valor will, ere long, carry this succe 
through to its final consummation in the complete crushing of the rebellion, 
and the restoration of Union and peace. The Chicago platform declares this 
impossible. McClellan declares neitkor the one thing nor the other. 

Neither does McClellan pronounce on this question whether " this failure in 
the experiment of war," as declared by the Chicago platform, should be pushed 
to the logical result that platform draws, namely the " demand that imme- 
diate efforts be made for a cessation of hostilities-" His sola utterance on this 
point is in these words : 

" So soon as it is clear, or even probable, that our present adversaries are ready for 
peace, upon the basis of the Union, we should exhaust all the resources of statesmanship 
practiced by civilized nations, and taught by the traditions of the American people, con- 
sistent with the honor aud interests of the country, to secure such peace, re-establish the 
Union, and guarantee for the future the Constitutional rights of every State." 

The platform says " immediate? which we understand. The nominee says : 
"so soon as it is clear or probable" which is just saying nothing at all. Who 
doubts that so soon as it is clear or probable that the rebels are ready for peace 
upon the basis of the Union, we are ready to make such a peace ? The expres- 
sion is au evasive platitude, which McClellan never could have used had he had 
in his heart the honest determination to carry through the war to the only point 
when it will be either u clear or probable'" that tlie rebels will ask for peace. 

How thoroughly are these tortuous windings characteristic of a man who, 
never instructed by the maxim of the great master of war, that" half measures 
always fail," gave throughout his military career a lamentable example of its 
truth, and is destined to add conspicuous confirmation of its verity by his 
career as a politician. 

VI. 
From these unintelligible utterances and evasive subtleties, those who seek 
the rule of action of the party that has set up George B. McClellan as its 
Presidential candidate are thrown back on the declarations of this party as 
embodied in its platform. Here we find something we can understand at least. 
The proposition for a cessation of hostilities on account of the failure of the war, 
if a lie in its antecedent and an insult in its consequent, is at least intelligible, 
and leaves plain people in no maze of doubt as to its meaning. And let Mc- 
Clellan refine, and evade, and spout " Union," without any hint of the means 



that are to secure Union, the principles of the platform are the principles by 
which he would be governed if the disaster of his election should befall this 
nation. If he ■were ten times the patriot he is, he would be drawn by»the irre- 
sistible gravitation of his fssociations, his necessities, and the creed of his party, 
into the )x>licy of. his party. What that policy is, soldiers of the Union, you 
know. Is there anything in it but what you, holding a Union musket in 
your hands, must spit out of your mouth with scorn? Surely there is not, unless 
you are willing that the heroes shall have died in vain, unless you are willing 
that the trials and the triumphs of the grandest of wars shall pass for nothing, 
unless you are willing to break your weapons of war and retire to the ignominy 
which must come upon men who, fighting the battles of humanity till victory 
was won, had not the courage to snatch its fruits ! 

The Copperheads have put up McClallan because they hope yonr suffrages 
will enable them to carry through their cherished project of a surrender to Jeff. 
Davis. They forget the terrible rebuke that, came up from your ranks, like a 
great Atlantic swell, when their nominee, a year ago in his Woodward letter 
hinted, in a far feebler way than he now does by running on the Chicago plat- 
form, his affiliation with the peace 'party. It would indeed be time to despair 
of the Republic if American solcfiers could be the dupes of so base a plot as 
the Copperheads have laid. But the country is destined to no such humilia- 
tion. The voice of the Army will on the 8th of November, proclaim in thun- 
der-tones that the war must be prosecuted till the rebellion is quelled and the 
Union restored. And as the rebels those to secede from the administration of 
Abraham Lincoln, you are going to see to it that they swallow that particular 
pill by succumbing to the administration of Abraham Lincoln. 



PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN 0? 1864 

tlMOK C0KG&8$St0»At COMMITTEE. 

Hon. E. D. MORGAN, of New York. Hon. E. B. WASHBURNE, of Illinois. 

" JAS. HARLAN, of Iowa. " R. B. VAN VALKENBURG, N.Y 

" L. M. MORRILL, of Maine. " J. A. GARFIELD, of Ohio. 

(Senate.) " J- G. BLAINE, of Maine. 

(House of Representatives ) 

E. D. MORGAN, Chairman. JAS. HARLAN, Treasurer. D. N. COOLEY, Sec'y. 

Committee Rooms, Washington, D- C., Sept. 2, 1S64. 
Dear Sir : The Union Congressional Committee? in addition to 
the documents already published, propose to issue immediately 
the following documents for distribution among_the people 
1. 
2. 
3. 



McClellan's Military Career Reviewed and Exposed. 
George H. Pendleton, his Disloyal Record and Antecedents. 
The Chicago Copperhead Convention, the men who composed 
and controlled it. 

4. Base surrender of the Copperheads to the Rebels in arms. 

5. The Military and Naval Situation, and the Glorious Achieve- 

ments of our Soldiers and Sailors. 

6. A Few Plain Words with the Private Soldier. 

7. What Lincoln's Administration has done. 

8. The History of McClellan's "Arbitrary Arrest" of the Mary- 
land Legislature. 

9. Can the Country Pay the Expenses of the War ? 

10. Doctrines of the Copperheads North identical with those of 

the Rebels South. 

11. The Constitution Upheld and Maintained. 

12. Rebel Terms of Peace. 

18. Peace, to be enduring, must be Conquered. 

14:. A History of Cruelties andrAtrocities of the Rebellion. 

15. Evidences ot a Copperhead Conspiracy in the Northwest. 

The above documents will be printed in English and German 
in eightor sixteen page pamphlets, and sent postage free accord- 
ing to directions at the rate of one or two dollars per hundred 
copies. The plans and purposes of trie Copperheads having been 
disclosed by the action of the Chicago Convention, they should 
at<*once be laid before the loyal people of the country. There is 
but two months between this and the election, and leagues, clubs, 
and individuals should lose no. time in sending in their orders. 
Remittances should be be made in Greenbacks or drafts on New 
York City, payable to the order of James Harlan. 
Address — Free. 

Hon. JAMES HARi AN, 

Washington,, D. C. 
Very respectfully, yours, &c, 

D.N COOLEY, Secretary. 



Printed by L. Towers for the Union Congressional Committee. 



A. FEW PLAIN WORDS 



WITH THE 



RANK AND FILE OF THE UNION ARMIES. 



WILLIAM SWINTON, 
1 1 

Washington Editor N. Y. Times. 



r. 

Napoleon wittily warned governments to " beware when bayonets sbould 
earn to think ; " but with us, iar from being a subject of fear, it is our glory and 
)ride that the war for the Union has been upheld by a million of " thinking 
jayonets." Despots may tremble when the bayonets that sustain their thrones 
earn to think ; but when free men rise in arms to defend free institutions, what 
* thinking" can be more true, more wise, more patriotic than theirs ? 

It is thinking bayonets that compose our army. It is "thinking" that 
Inspired those bayonets ; and it is because they are in the grasp of thinking 
men that they are clothed with all their majesty and power. When dark days 
liave come upon our land, when the sibilant tongue of the copperhead has been 
beard to hiss his base whispers of surrender, when the wisest could not see their 
way clear, and the hearts of the most patriotic sunk within them, hope and 
light and couiage have flashed forth from the gleam of those same thinking 
bayonets. 

It is you, Oh million of thinking bayonets, that have led the way, that have 
shamed our puisillanimity, that have taught the nation what patriotism is. 
If Peace now begins to dawn on our land, it is because through four years of 
dread war, in bright and dark days, you have carried the Union in your hearts 
and on your bayonets. When peace comes it will be honorable and lasting be- 
cause your bayonets have made it so ; and yours will be the glory and the 
honor. " When the war closes," says the great captain who has led the army 
of the West from Chattanooga to Atlanta, in a letter lately written to a humble 
private soldier in his army : " When the war closes I will, if I survive it, make it 
my study to give full honor and credit to the soldiers in the ranks, who, though 
in humble capacity, have been the working hands by which the nation's honor 
and manhood have been vindicated? 



>i«" fa 

The voice of the nation re-affirms this declaration of General Sherman. His- 
tory will celebrate as the true heroes of the grand War for the Union not those 
■who have held the high places of command, but those kundieds of thousands 
of what Kossuth called " nameless heroes" — the rank and file of our armies 
who, shoulder to shoulder and touching elbows, have carried the war through to 
reaults which ensure its glorious consummation. 

II. 

If ever there was a time when Union bayonets were called on to think, it ia 
now. The crisis of the war, when our armies have the rebellion in their grasp 
and are preparing to deal its death-blow, finds the country precipiiated into the 
turmoil of a Presidential election. This election touches you. because in be- 
coming soldiers you did not cease to be citizens ; but, it touches you even more 
closely than it does those of us who are merely citizens and not soldiers: for 
the issue is presented whether this wai for the Union in which you are battling 
is a delusion and a mockery — whether the priceless blood shed shall go for no 
more than water spilt on the ground — whether you shall lay down your arms 
and sue rebels to make on their terms the peace you thought your valor had 
nearly won. That you may see this and no other is the real issne which will 
be tried on the 8th day of November next — read with all the care you can com- 
mand the creed of the two candidates claiming your suffrages : 

The Union platform resolves : 

That it is the highest duty of every American citizen to maintain against all their ene 
mies the integrity of Union, and the paramount authority of the Constitution and laws 
of the United States, and that layingaside all differences and political opinions, we pledge 
ourselves as Union men, animated by a common sentiment, and aiming at a common ob- 
ject, to do everything in our power to aid the Government in quelling by force of arms 
the rebellion now raging against its authority, ,an\l in bringing to -the punishment due to 
their crimes the rebels and traitors arrayed against it. 

That we approve the determination of the Government of the United States not to 
compromise with rebels or to offer any terms of peace except such as may be based 
upon an " UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER " of their hostility and a return to their just 
allegiance to the Constitution and the laws of the United States; and that we call 
upon the Government to maintain thi^>osition and to prosecute the war with the ut- 
possible vigor to the most complete suppression of the rebellion, in full reliance upon 
the self-sacrifice, the patriotism, the heroic valor and the undying devotion of the Ameri- 
can people to their country and its free institutions. 

That the thanks of the American people are due to the soldiers and sailors of the 
army and navy, who have periled their lives in defense of their country and in vin- 
dication of the honor of the flag; that the nation owes to them some permanent 
recognition of their patriotism and their valor, and ample and permanent provision 
for those of their survivors who have received disabling and and honorable wounds in 
the service of the country: and that the memories of those who have fallen in it* 
defense shall be held in grateful aud everlasting remembrance. 

The Copperhead plai/orm resolves : 

That this convention does explicitly declare as the sense of the American people that 
after FOUR YEARS OF FAILURE TO RESTORE THE UNION BY THE EXPERI- 
MENT OF WAR, during which, under the preteuce of a military necessity, or war 
power higher than the Constitution, the Constitution itself has been disregarded in 
every part, and public liberty and private right alike trodden down, and the material 
prosperity of the country essentially impaired, justice, humanity, liberty, and the public 
welfare demand that IMMEDIATE EFFORT BE MADE FOR A CESSATION OF HOS- 
TILITIES, with a view to an ultimate convention of all the States, or other peaceable 
means, to the end that at the earliest practicable moment peace may be restored on 
be basis of the Federal Union of the States. 

There are other declarations made in each ; but they do not touch essentials. 
The vital principle in each case is contained in these utterances. 

The former, it need not be said, is the platform on which it is proposed 

•M EXCHMNE 

Jb'N S i9l7 



Abraham Linco rm1 titi ue *' j to >Jr another term the administration of the 
government. Tin-, +v rs ,i*e platform on which George B. McClellan comes 
forward to claim your suffrages and those of the nation. 

T c issue here drawn in such clear and palpable lines that no man — far 
less any soldier can intake it. It is not a personal issue. It is not a question 
whether Ah:aham Lincolu or George B. McClellan shall be President. It is 
a question whether or not we shall have a Constitution and a country left us. 

The prime points in the Chicago copperhead platform — those which give its 
distinctive character — are these : 

1. The assertion of our ''failure to restore the Union by the experiment of 
war." 

2. The demand that " immediate efforts be made for a cessation of hostilities" 
The copperhead creed very properly joins these assertions in the relation of 

logical sequence : that is, " immediate efforts should be made for a cessation of 
hostilities " because "/the experiment of war" has been a "failure." The 
premises granted, the conclusion naturally follows. 

But suppose you do not grant it — suppose a voice, which is already audible in" 
the air, mingling the .fierce protests of indignant men with the dread clamor of 
triumphant artillery and vollied thunders along the line, rolls up from Petersburg 
to Atlanta and from Atlanta to Mobile Bay, to hurl back the slauder that dares 
thus belittle your matchless' achievements. We tell you, soldiers, that voice is 
echoed back by a nation that thinks with you that a war which in three years 
has reclaimed from the rebels :hree-fourths of a territory as large as all Europe, 
has driveu their armies from point to point, beaten them in scores of the great- 
est battles on record, reduced their whole fighting material from more than 
three- quartos of a million to between a hundred and a hundred and fifty thou- 
sand, captured their chief cities, destroyed their great lines of communication, 
and now holds their whole coast in strictest blockade, will need some other 
word than " failure"' to sum up its swelling content and result. "Failure in 
the experiment of war," forsooth ! It is an insult to your glorious deeds and 
your glorious dead, and could only have been used by men with whom the 
wish of 'failure'' was father to the thought. 

In what magnificent coinrast with the slanderous falsehoods of these misera- 
ble men stand the declarations lately made by the Lieutenant General com- 
manding the armies of the United Spates ! Standing on an eminence whence 
he surveys the whole continental field of battle, whence his eyes take in all the 
elements that enter into the dread problem of war, he affirms that the rebellion is 
doomed, that the r t b are all but used u at the one thing needed to 

" secure an early r( storation of the Union is a determined unity of sentiment at the 
North." ■' The rebels," says he, " have now in their ranks their last man. Tho 
little boys and old men are guarding prisoners, guarding railroad bridges, and 
forming a good pait of their gariisons or iutrenched positions. A man lost by 
them cannot be replace.!. They' have robbed the cradle and the grave equally 
to get their present fore.'. Besides what they lose in frequent skirmishes and 
battles, they are now losing from desertions an*' jt- causes at least one regi- 
ment per day. With this drain upon them he end is not far distant, if we 
will only be true to ourselves. Their only i 9e now is in a divided North" 
It is in this state of fac s, when the life-bloou of the rebellion is ebbing away, 
wheu our victorious columns are marching on from victory to victory, when 
the soul of the nation is stirred and vivified with a breath of the old-time patri- 
otic fire, when the Government finds the revival of the volunteer spirit such 
(reaching from five to ten thousand recruits per day) that it can afford to dis- 
pense with the operations of the draft as a slower recruiting agent than the 
spontaneous patriotism of the people present, — it is amid this inspiring present- 



.4 

n#> V / 

merit of material and moral elements that tL tms j$fl res °/uti n * / nventioii 
propose that " immediate efforts be made for ac & t«? ^Waatj^ s ^ a /l Is this 
the sober utterance of men claiming to control the destinies ^? . Weat nation, 
or is it only a piece of hideous and untimely irony ? You are to turn back, you 
victorious columns that have pushed the lines of imperial conquest from Chat- 
tanooga to Atlanta and driven the army of the rebellion in rout and demorali- 
zation to the borders of the Gulf; you are to loose your hold on the vital com- 
munications of the enemy, you, veterans of Virginia, that have fought your 
way to where you stand in a campaign that makes historic wars a plaything 
and marks your path from the Kapidan to the James in characters of blood 
and flame, — all, all are to retire and allow copperheads and conspirators to 
settl j , over the graves of Union soldiers fallen in a useless war, the terms of sur- 
render to Jeff. Davis and his crew. Such are copperhead principles, 9uch is 
the copperhead platform. 

III. 

In the sad total of "failure in the experiment of war," which you will first 
learn from the creed of Chicago sums up the history of four years, you are invit- 
ed by its framers to accept their — " sympathy. You have, according to the doc- 
trines and declarations of these men, not on\y failed, but you have beenfooled. 
Lour love of the old flaw, your determination to defend it, your hatred of treason, 
your deathli ss patriotism are mere fancy and fustian, the great army of mar- 
tyrs that have offered up their lives a willing sacrifice on the altar of the Union 
were poor simpletons, the tens of thousands of your comrades who pine in 
rebel prisons, aud the hundreds of thousands who bear about in their bodies 
the insignia of glorious wounds are deluded victims— and in this u#iappy pre- 
dicament you are offered their profound "sympathy." Sympathy— it is a pre- 
cious quality ; but there are times when it is the most stinging of insults. We 
can fancy the feelings with which the war-worn veterans of Grant and Sherman 
will receive this gushing tender of copperhead "sympathy." From the enemy 
in your front you have won something more than sympathy: you have extort- 
ed his respect, and you rightly regard this as much more valuable than the 
hollow commisseration of copperheads. For their sympathy, the Chicago reso- 
lutions sufficiently show where that goes. Men who have nothing but contum- 
ely for the government you are defending, and whose declaration of principles 
contains not a word against treason and rebellion, not a syllable about the in- 
fernal treatment of our prisoners by the rebels, not a whisper of reproof for the 
crime of those southern politicians which has desolated half a continent, show 
their hands too plainly to blind you as to the real drift of their •'sympathy." 
You will indignantly tell them to take it where it will be better appreciated and 
not awaken that disgust which it must stir in the breast of every patriotic 
soldier. 

IV. 

The Copp-rheadsknow your sentiments. They know that the army is sound 
and incorruptible. They know that there has been no time during the past 
three years that you would not as lief fight them as fight rebels— no time that 
you would not willingly leave the enemy in your front to attend to the equally 
base, but far less brave, enemy in your rear. 

It is for this reason that they will court you, and try to wheedle you. They 
know that their doctrines are a stench in your nostrils They will try to hide 
this by pretence and palaver. They are huckstering for the army vote. The 
Copperheads at Chicago carried the platform, nominated Pendleton, one of 



their rankest members (who has opposed the army and tbe war in every vo 
his in Congress,) as Vice President, and, to blind you, put up McOlella 
President. This is a ruse de guerre. They care nothing for MoClellau — he is 
with them only "a name to conjure by," a tub thrown to the whale. They 
calculate that there are many men in our armies who will vote for McClellan 
anyhow. It does not occur to them that you look beneath the surface, that you 
penetrate the real issue, that this issue is the country's salvation and that you 
prefer your country's salvation before the fortunes of any man. American 
toldiers are not the material out of which to make a Pretorian guard on whose 
Bayonets any man can be hoisted into power. 

I The armies outside of tbe Army of the Potomac: never were affected by the 
■cClellau mania. The men who have fought with Giant, campaigned with 
Kosccrans- and marched with Sherman, are not the men to fall in love with 
BcClellan's feeble and fruitless style of warfare. A nation that has shared in 
the glories of Vicksburg and Stone River and Chattanooga and Atlanta has got 
Ilong ways beyond the point of being deluded by bombastic " changes of 
Base" and "masterly inactivity." 

IB it of the old soldiers of the Potomac army, there arc still doubdess many 

[eft ' 'ho retain those traditions that time and events have long since effaced from 

the memories of' men. Around the bivouac, iu the loll of long summer days, 

pr in the close contact of the winter's tent, you hear these men tell of the 

£ Young Napoleon " and his career. Prejudices and predilections, natural to 

en but nothing to you, gradually, by force of repetition, steal their way into 

our minds. Falsehoods, innocently believed by the old men, but of which 

ou have no means of knowing the falsity, are told you — perhaps believed by 

pit. You are told how the Administration thwarted McClelian's plans, withheld 

romised troops, threw obstacles in his path, and ensured defeat where he had 

rgauized victory. 

Under another i>sue than that to-day presented to the country and to the army, 

hese questions might be in place. It, might be in place to inquire whether 

General McClellan was a great military genius, as gome believe, or an incompe- 

ent and blunderer, as < tiers believe; whether the men and material 

eeded to make his campaigns successful were withheld from him, or whether 

e had lavished upon him the generous resources of the nation ; whether the 

Administration is blameable for removing him when it did, or whether it is 

lameable for not sooner discovering his incompetence. These are interesting 

questions no doubt, and they will long be discussed with the warmth of parti- 

an affection and the bitterness of partisan hate. Cut they are not in issue just 

o\ . For our individual pait, we believe the record of the Administration to 

e' ingularly clear on all these points. We believe McClellan to be neither a 

re; t general nor an aggrieved man. We see nothing in his career, either of 

ilent, character, or success that fits him to be President of the United States. 

Jut let that pass. It is not a question of his merits or his demerits. It is a 

louestion of the principles which he represents McClellan might have the 

ipunty of a Washington, the statesmanship of a Pitt, and the generalship of a 

|Na^olfon, yet did he not plant himself fair and square on tbe issue of the life 

or ueath of this nation, he and his claims would pass for nothing. 

V. 

McClellan, after a delay, the Jeng'h of which showed the extreme unpopu- 
larity of the of the platform on which he was nominated, accepted the nomina- 
tion of the Chicago Convention. His declarat'on of principles had been anx- 
iously looked for, because he had put himself on record iu letters to army bis 



6 

friends, that he could only consent to run on a war platform. Would he re- 
nounce the platform and thereby renounce the candidacy, or would he accept 
the platform and ruin himself? The solution of this perplexing problem, given 
by McClellan in his letter or acceptance, only serves to show the insuperable 
difficulties that attend his position, and the impossibility of securing votes 
enough to elect him without making dupes of the one or the other faction of 
the party to which he looks for suppoit. 

The issue male by the Chicago platform is cleir and unmistakeable, and de- 
manded to be met with downright assent or dissent. On this McClellan palt- 
ers in a double sense, keeping the pronrse of patriotism to the ear and breaking 
it to the heart. Whether he thinks " the experiment of war a failure" or not, 
is impossible to determine. He expresses the opinion that the war should have 
been carried on in a different way from what it Las beet:. Thdre is no 
end of people who think the same way. For a year and a-half we 
tried his way of carrying on war, and we submit how much of the 
"failure in the experiment" is due to himself. We have since car- 1 
ried on war in a quite other way; and so far from seeing "failure," we find 
a'l around the horizon of the war the signs and sjmb »ls of magnificent and 
accumulating success. We think your valor will, ere long, carry this,, success 
through to its final consummation in the complete crushing of the rebellion, 
and the restoration of Union and peace. The Chicago platform declares this 
impossible. McClellan declares neither the one thing nor the other. 

Neither does M< Clellan pronounce on this question whether " this failure in 
the experim nt, of war," as declared by the Chicago platform, should be pushed 
to the logical result that platform draws, namely the "demand that imme- 
diate effoits be made for a cessation of hostilities-" His sole utterance on this 
point is in these words: 

•' So soon as it is clear, or even probable, that our present adversaries are ready for 
peace, upon the basis of the Union, we should exhaust al! the resources of statesmanship 
practiced by civilized nations, and taught by the traditions of the American people, con- 
sistent willi ihe honor and iulerestfl of the country, to secure such peace, re -establish the 
Union, and guarantee for the future the Constitutional rights of everj Mate." 

The platform says " immediate? which we understand. The nominee says: 
" 80 soon as it is clear or probable," which is just saying nothing at all. Who 
doubts that so soon as it is clear or probable that the rebels ire re dy for peace 
upon the basis of the Union, we are ready to make such a peace ? The expres- 
sion i^ an evasive platitude, which McClellan never could have used had he had 
ir^his heart the honest determination to carry through tin- war to the only point 
when it will be either "clear or probable" that the rebels ivill ask J or peace. 

How thoroughly are these tortuous windings characteristic of a man who, 
never instructed by the maxim oi the great master of war, that" half measures 
always fail," gave" throughout his military career a lamentable example of its 
truth, and is destined to add conspicuous confirmation of its verity by his 
career as a politician. 

VI. 

From these unintelligible utterances and evasive subtleties, tho*e who seek 
the rule of action of Uie party that has set up George B. McClellan as its 
Presidential candidate are thrown back on the declarations of this party as 
embodied in its platform. Here we find something we can understand at least. 
The proposition for a cessation of hostilities on account of the failure of the war, 
if a lie in its antecedent and an insult in its consequent, is at least intelligible, 
and leaves plain people in no maze of doubt as to its meaning. And let Mc- 
Clellan refiue, and evade, and spout "Union," without any hint of the means 



hat are to secure Union, the principles of the platform are the principles by 

thick he would be governed if the disaster of his election shoidd befall this 

ation. If he were ten times the patriot he is, he would be drawn by the irre- 

istible gravitation of his associations, his necessities, and the creed of his party, 

nto the policy of bis party. "What that policy is, soldiers of the Union, you 

know. Is there anything in it but what you, holding a Union musket in 

your hands, must spit out of your mouth with scorn? Surely there is not, unless 

you are willing that the heroes shall have died in vain, unless you a<e willing 

♦hat the trials and the triumphs of the grandest of wars shall pass for nothing, 

nless you are willing to break your weapons of war and retire to the ignominy 

hich must come upon men who, fighting the battles of humanity till victory 

as won, had not the courage to snatch its fruits ! 

The Copperheads have put up McClellau because they hope your suffrages 
ill enable them to carry through their cherished project of a surrender to Jeff, 
javis. They forget the terrible rebuke that came up from your ranks, like a 
great Atlantic swell, when their nominee, a year ago in his Woodward letter ■ 
hinted, in a far feebler way than he now does by running on the Chicago plat- 
form, his affiliation with the peace party. It would indeed be time to despair 
of the Republic if American soldiers could be the dupes of so base a plot as 
"'he, Copperheads have laid. But the country is destined to no such humilia- 
in. The voice of the Army will on the 8th of November, proclaim in thun- 
•tones that the war must be prosecuted till the rebellion is quelled and the 
on restored. And as the rebels chose to secede from the administration of 
raham Lincoln, you are going to see to it that they swallow that particular 
11 by succumbing to the administration of Abraham Lincoln. 






PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN OF 183 

OMON-CONCBESStOMAt COMMtTI 



Hon. E. D. MORGAN, of New York. 
" JAS. HARLAN, of Iowa. 
" L. M. MORRILL, of Maine. 
(Senate.) 



Hon. E. B. WASHBURNE, of I 
" R. B. VAN VALKENBUI 
" J. A. GARFIELD, of Ohil 
" J. G. BLAINE, of Maine. 
(House of Representatives ) 
E. D. MORGAN, Chairman. JAS. HARLAN, Treasurer. D. N. COOLE1 



Committee Rooms, Washington, D- C., Sept. 2, 1£ 

Dear Sir : The Union Congressional Committee, in addit 

the documents already published, propose to issue immed 

the following documents for distribution among the people 

1. McClellan's Military Career Reviewed and Exposed. 

2. George H. Pendleton, his Disloyal Record and Antece 
o. The Chicago Copperhead Convention, the men who com 

and controlled it. 

4. Base surrender of the Copperheads to the Rebels in am 

5. The Military and Naval Situation, and the Glorious Acl 

ments of our Soldiers and Sailors. 

6. A Few Plain Words with the Private Soldier. 

7. What Lincoln's Administration has done. 

8. The History of McClellan's "Arbitrary Arrest" of the 3 

land Legislature. 

9. Can the Country Pay the Expenses of the War? 

10. Doctrines of the Copperheads North identical with the 

the Rebels South. 

11. The Constitution Upheld and Maintained. 

12. Rebel Terms of Peace. 

13. Peace, to be enduring, must be Conquered. 

14. A History of Cruelties and Atrocities of the Rebellion. 

15. Evidences of a Copperhead Conspiracy in the Northwc 
The above documents will be printed in English and Gc 

in eightor sixteen page pamphlets, and sent postage free ac 
ing to directions at the rate of one or two dollars per hu i 
copies* The plans and purposes of the Copperheads having 
disclosed by the action of the Chicago Convention, they s 
at once be laid before the loyal people of the country. Th 
but two months between this and the election, and leagues, I 
and individuals should lose no time in sending in their o 
Remittances should be be made in Greenbacks or drafts on 
York City, payable to the order of James Harlan. 
Address — Free. 

Hon. JAMES HARLAN, 

Washington, D. C. 
Very respectfully, yours, &c, 

'D. N COOLEY, Sacred 

Printed by L. Towers for the Union Congressional Committee. 



THE CONSTITUTION UPHELD AND 
MAINTAINED. 



SPEECH 



OF 



HON. JAS. HAKLAN, 



THE UNITED STATES SENATE. 



In this country every patriot reverences the Constitution aud the laws. Every 
wanton violation of either stirs his indignation. As in Rome the voice of thk 
people was said to be the voice of God, so in this country the law is our only sov- 
ereign which all-, from the President to the humblest among the toiling millions, must 
implicitly obey. Whoever wantonly tramples the Constitution and the laws uncUr 
his feet, is properly held to be an enemy of the people, and at war with their dear- 
est interefic 

Relyiug on this reverence for the law of the land, the rebels of the South and 
their allies in the North, have sought to justify their treason, and secure a diversion 
in favor of their wicked purposes, by denouncing the President as a usurper and 
tyrant, and his administration as unconstitutional. So persistently have they pur- 
sued this course, as to convince many honest and patriotic citizens of its truth. So 
that many of the President's warmest admirers, and consistent and ardent friends of 
the Union, justify these supposed violations of the Constitution on the ground of 
"military necessity," and the duty of the President to preserve the Government. 
Nor will I dispute the potency of this defense of what would otherwise be the un- 
lawful act of a nation or an individual. For the right to self-preservation is the 
first law of nations as well as of nature. This principle underlies every national 
code, and every system of legal casuistry. None are bo foolish as to insist that a 
nation may not disregard its own laws to avoid destruction: and none exoept rebeto 
steeped in crime could desire our Government to tamely submit to annihilation. 

But having carfully observed the administration of public affairs by President 
Lincoln, and as carfully examined the charges of unconstitutionality preferred 
against it, I fearlessly pronounee them groundless. 

Let us examine for a few minutes gome of the gravest of these charges. 



! : . \ >^\S~6 

/fc 3 51 

# 2 

CALL FOR MILITIA. 

1. The rebels South and North denounced the first belligerent act of President 
Lincoln — his call for some seventy-five thousand militia, as unconstitutional and 
tyranical. 

And yet the Constitution provides in so many words that Congress shall have 
power 

"To provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the Union, sup- 
press insurrection and repel invasion." (Art. 1, Sec. 8.) 

And Congress had, under this provision .of the Constitution, many years befoi^ 
provided by law for the use of the militia by the President, whenever it might be- 
come necessary for the purposes named. And the necessity had arisen ; a gigantic 
insurrection existed; it had made open and flagrant actual war on the Government 
both by land and sea. And the President in pursuance of his oath to execute the 
laws, made the call for troops to assist him. 

2. The copperheads denounce the President for the " conscription " or "draft " of 
soldiers to fill up the depleted ranks of our armies. 

And yet none will seriously deny that all able bodied male citizens owe their 
services to the republic when needed for its defense, or to aid in the enforcement of 
its laws : and that if they do not voluntarily spring to arms when the necessity 
arises, they may be compelled to serve : and that without the right to coerce the ser- 
vices of its citizens to aid in the common defense, and to enforce the laws, all civil 
government would prove a total failure. Hence sheriffs, and constables, and mar- 
shalls, in every State in the Union, when resisted in the excution of process, are 
authorized by law to call "by-standers," all in their reach, for assistance, and it is 
declared to be a crime to refuse the requisite aid. So it is now, and ever has been, 
and must ever continue to be when the national authorities are resisted by internal 
or external foes. The proper officers must have the right to require the aid of all 
the people, or abandon the Government. But if the services of all are not needed 
in any given case, there is no fairer mode of making the selection of the requisite 
number than by " casting lots," which is but another name for " Draft " or " Con- 
scription." 

And all know that the President did not commence raising troops in this mode 
until Congress enacted laws requiring it to be done. That Congress had the power 
to enact those laws none can dispute. For the Constitution provides that Congress 
shall have power 

"To raise and support armies." (Const. Art. 1. Sec. 8.) 

The power, therefore, is plenary — it is without restriction : the n 
them, the material, pay, government, length of service, character, a 
nationality are all left to the discretion of Congress. And Congress dir 
President should call for volunteers, and if the quotas of the several S 
thus filled, he should select the residue from the people of the delinqi 
lot or draft. Hence the President, so far from violating the Constit< 

ing men to be drafted, has simply obeyed the la,w. And the law is 

with the plainest and most explicit provisions of the Constitution. 

3. They denounce the President for violating the Constitution in arming negroes.^ 
And yet all know that he did not do so until Congress had enacted a law requir- 
ing this to be done. And the power of Congress to pass such a law will hardly be 
questioned after reading the clause of the Constitution above cited which declares 
Uiat " Congress ehall have power to raise and support armies." Here is no limita- 
tion. The troops raised may be black or white, red or yellow, and of any nation- 
ality ; they may be natives or foreigners, minors or adults, slaves or owners, appren- 
tices or masters; and so far as the question of power is concerned, may be required 
to serve with or without pay. Nor is this a new policy. Colored troops were em- 
ployed in this country during the revolutionary war and the war of 1812— and 
have been, and are still used by every nation on earth controling colored citizens 
or subjects. If authorities were wanting to prove this, they might be piled up by 
the volume. 

But I will only mention in passing that Senator Johnson, once Attorney General 
of the United States, a gentleman of great legal learning, and heretofore not a friend 
of this Administration — who has neglected no opportunity to reprimand it for every 
supposed weakness, error, or oversight, said in a speech on the floor of the Senate 
at it its last session, 



"Mr. President, a word ortwomoreon this subject before I leave it, I have had occasion mmc 
than once during the session to say (and that opinion I confidently entertain) that although by the 
laws of the States Africans are made property, they are also under the Oonslitutlon of the United 
States, with reference to the war power of the Government, to be considered as persons, and may 
be used as persons and brought into the Held to maintain the authority of the Government to which 
as persons they owe allegiauce. If this opinion be Sound, if they are persons subject to our mili- 
tary control, if they are persons increasing our military power, they are for the same reasons 
persons under the military control of the rebels, and may increase their military power, and as 
such it is as much the right of the United States to take them from the rebels or to use them against 
the rebels, as it is to take from and use against the rebels anything else that may be used by 
the rebels against the United States. — (Cong. Globe. 

4th. The President is accused of having interfered with the freedom of speech and 
of the press. 

There is a. differeDce between freedom and lieentiousnes. The liberty of all to ac- 
quire property does not include the right to steal and rob. Freedom of locomotion 
does not include the right to trespass on another's premises. Freedom to love, and 
to be loved, does not include the right to disturb your neighbors domestic happiness. 
So " freedom of the press " does not include the right to print and circulate coun- 
terfeit bank notes ; nor freedom of speech, the right to slander your neighbor, or 
" to give aid and comfort " to the public enemy in time of war. And if any one, 
under the pretense of a right to freedom of speech or of the press, commits treason, 
he may and ought to be restrained and punished. To pretend the contrary, would 
indicate extreme mental obtuseness or unpardonable and criminal wickedness. 

If the President has in any case suppressed a newspaper, or arrested any one for 
words spoken, in which the parties were not intentionally and ostentatiously en- 
couraging the rebels to continue the war, and simulating their northern sympa- 
thizers to obstruct and embarrass the Government in its efforts to suppress the re- 
bellion, it has never come to my knowledge. But whether he has or has not erred 
in any given case, in relation to the guilt or mnocense of the party, is not the real 
question. All admit that his intentions are pure. The real question is one ofcoa- 
6titutional right to prevent publishers of newspapers and stump speakers from com- 
mitting treason — from giving aid and comfort to the public enemy. 

And the right to suppress a newspaper used in the interest of treason is as clear 
and indisputable as the right to take a dagger from the hand of the assassin, tools 
from the counterfeiter, or muskets from the hands of the rebels. The freedom of 
speech and of the press is not more explicitly guarantied by the Constitution than 
"the right to bear arms." 

But beiore leaving the subject, I propose to prove, from the official record, that 
the copperheads themselves do not believe their own statements on this subject. 

Immediately preceding the last presidential election, Jefferson Davis offered for 
the consideration of the Senate, a series of resolutions declaratory of the principles 
which should control in the administration of the affairs of the National Govern- 
ment. When the second resolution of the series, which made a covert attack on the 
freedom of discussion, was under consideration, I offered the following as an amend- 
ment: 

"But the free discussion of the morality and expediency of slavery should never be interfered 
with by the laws of any State or of the United States; and the freedom of speech and of the press, 
on this and every other subject of domestic and national policy, should be maintained inviolate 
in all the States." 

The question being taken on this amendment, by yeas and nays, resulted yeas 20, 
nays 30 — every Democratic Senator voting in the negative, including Bright, of In- 
diana, Gwinu and Latham, of California, Lane, of Oregon, Pugh, of Ohio, and 
Thompson, of New Jersey, all representing northern States, and all from border 
slave States, as well as those from the extreme South. — (Cong. Globe, 1st session, 
36th Congress, pages 1937-2321.) 

On the 8th of April last, when Senator Powell, of Kentucky, was denouncing the 
President for interfering with what he styled "freedom of speech," I called his at- 
tention to the foregoing, reminding him that he and all his Democratic associates 
in the Senate voted against free speech. He replied that the scope of the amend- 
ment would have been to send persons down South to preach insurrection to their 
slaves. "I would vote nay again on that resolution. I voted right." — (Cong. 
Globe, 1st session, 38tn Congress, page 1487.) That is, according to his admission, 
"the freedom of speech and of the press " may be suppressed to prevent the insur- 
rection of negroes and to preserve slavery! Then may not its licentiousness be re- 
strained to suppress the rebellion of white men, and to preserve the Government. 



5th. The copperheads denounce the administration for\the conjiscation of the prop- 
erty of rebels and the liberation of their slaves. 

And yet the Constitution says : 
"The Congress shall have power to declare the punishment of treason."— (Art. 8, sec. 3.) 

And Congress, in pursuance of this provision provided by law, that unless these 
traitors should lay down their arms and return to their allegiance within a time to 
be fixed by the President, they should be punished by the confiscation of all their 
property, including slaves. 

And why should they not be thus punished ? Heretofore the punishment of trea- 
son was death. This is the usual penalty for this offence in every civilized country 
on earth. If you may hang for treason why may you not inflict a less punishment 
.- — the loss of property ?' And if you may proscribe the loss of property as the pun- 
ishment of treason, why may you not include slave property ? Is property in slaves 
any more sacred than property in cattle and lands? The'power conferred by the 
Constitution is plenary. They may declare it to be the loss of lands, cattle, mules, 
horses, negroes, or franchises, such as the right to vote, hold office, or bear arms. 
There is no limitation whatever except that the punishment declared shall not be 
inflicted on the chrildren of the traitor. You shall not deprive the child of the 
right to vote, hold office, bear arms, or to acquire property on account of the pa- 
rents treason. 

6th. The President is denounced for issuing a proclamation liberating the slaves 
of rebels within the rebellious.districts. 

And pray why not? We have just seen that " Congress may declare the punish- 
ment of treason :" that in pursuance of this provision of the Constitution, Congress 
did declare that all traitors who should not lay down their arms by a time to be 
fixed- by the President, should forfeit all their property of "every kind," including 
slave property. The President had taken a soh-mn oath totake care that this and 
and all other "laws should be faithfully executed." Within the rebellious districts 
this confiscation act could not be enforced by the courts. But it was believed that 
if not impeded by the army and navy, it would to some extent execute itself, that 
many thousands of the slaves if protected would abandon their rebel masters. And 
to secure this result the President issued his proclamation, declaring that within the 
rebel districts, all persons, irrespective of their former status, should be considered 
and treated by the United States Government as freemen; and requiring the offi- 
cers of the army and navy to recognize their right to maintain their liberty. And 
if it is admitted to be right to punish rebels within our lines by the confiscation of 
their property, including slaves, pray can it be wrong to do the same thing beyond 
our lines so far as the effort can be made effective? 

It is objected, however, that the proclamation if enforced would liberate the 
slaves of Union citizens as well as of rebels. And it is clear that the emancipation 
et slaves of Union citizens who had not aided the rebellion could not be justified, 
under the clause of the Constitution authorizing Congress to declare the punishment 
of treason ; and to that extent the proclamation would be void, unless justified by . 
the public necessities; and in that case the parties thus losing slaves would have 
the same right to just compensation as if other proper had beeu taken for a similar 
purpose. And this would be a question for the courts to adjudicate when the su- 
premacy of the Constitution and laws shall have been restored. 

V. It is avered that the President violated the Constitution by suspending the writ 
of habeas corpus. 

And yet the Constitution says : 

"The priviledge of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended, unless when ir. cases of 
rebellion or invasion the public safety may require it." (Constitution Art. 1st., 6ec. 9.) 

This is what is styled by lawyers a negative pregnant; and is equivalent to 
saying that "The priviledge of the. writ of habeas corpus may be suspended when 
in cases of rebellion or invasion the public safety may require ht." And as a re- 
bellion does exist, the priviledge of the writ may be properly suspended if the pub- 
lic safety requires it. There can be no question of the right to suspend it: the only 
question that can arise, is, "who can judge of the necessity?" On this question a 
large majority 7 of the best legal minds of the country who have expressed an opin- 
ion on this point, conclude that the President is the proper party to exercise this 
judgment, as he is the Commander-in-Chief of the Armies and Navies of the Repub- 
lic, and is at the same time the chief executive officer entrusted with the enforce- 



i3f-y 



meat of the laws. Others, however, conclude that Cougress should decide when the 
public safety requires its suspension. Hence, to silence cavil, Congress enacted a 
law, formally directing its suspension, during the continuance of the rebellion, 
wnenever, and wherever the President might find it necessary to secure the en 
forcement of the laws. And this oujht to be an end of the controversy. 

8. The President is denounced for violating the Constitution by the " arbitrary 
arrests" of suspected parties and offenders in cases not founded on "information"- 
or "indictment," — and for authorizing their imprisonment without a trial and con- 
vie, ion by a jury. 

These charges are usually vindictive and malicious, and are in the first instance 
uttered for partizan effect, — and are doubtless repeated by the shallow minded and 
unreflecting under a belief that no arbitrary arrest is legal and constitutional 
Noting could be farther from the truth. Any citizen has a perfect inherent right 
60 arrest a criminal without process and to restrain him until process can be secur- 
ed. And any citizen hia a right without process to arrest a party to prevent the 
commission of crime, and to restrain him until the danger has passed. This is done 
every day and every night in the great cities. Men are discovered apparently on 
the point of committing crime, as an assault and battery, a burglary, a robbery, 01 
a murder, and are seized and incarcerated or otherwise restrained of their liberty 
to prevent the commission of the offence. In all such cases, even in times of pro- 
found peace, it is idle to insist that the arrest must be preceded by a formal "infoi- 
formation" or "indictment," or that a "jury trial" must precede an imprisonment. 
There would be no time for this — the delay would be fatal: instant action is ne- 
cessary to prevent the crime. Such arrests are therefore not on!\ r right — but a re- 
fusal to make them would be a crime against society. 

The President, when convinced that persons were about to commit treason — the 

..est crime known to the laws, has caused their arrest and restraint as in the 
of Vallandigham, of Ohio; and Jones, of Iowa, until the danger had passed, 
when they have been set at liberty. 

J am not here undertaking to justify any specific case of arrest made without 
process. Some of them may have been unnecessary, and may have worked great 
personal hardship. The President may not have been correctly informed, and may 
have erred in any given case. He could not be everywhere in person and must, 
necessarily rely on others for information. All I claim here is that he intended to 
. right, and that in principle he had a perfect right to make arrests without pro- 
cess to prevent the commission of crime. If not, why not? We have seen that a 
private citizen may do this — yea, more that it is his duty to do so — and a wrong 
akin to a crime to refuse when he has the power Ma} - not the President do what 
a private citizen may do to prevent the commission of offences! 

In the case of an arbitrary arrest by a private citizen without, process, if the res- 
traint were to be protracted, the party could serve- out a writ of habeas corpus, and 
secure his discharge by the judge of any court of competent jurisdiction. But if 
made by the President in times of ''invasion or insurrection" he could, if he deem- 
*. ed that the public safety required it, as we have seen suspend the priveledgeof this 
writ and retain the party in custody. 

If auy doubt might otherwise exist on this point, it ought to be settled in the 
minis of those who reverence the courts, by their decisions in the case i f the arrest 
and restraint of Vallandigham by Geneneral Burnsides. While still in custody, ap- 
plication was made to Judge Leavitt, of the United States Court for the Southern 
District of Ohio, for a writ of habeas corpus. Vallandigham was fully heard in an 
able and'exhaustive argument, delivered by his personal and political friend, ex-At- 
torney General of Ohio, George E. Pugh, who for six years was a representative of 
the Ohio Democracy in the United States Senate, and Judge Leavitt refused to issue 
the writ, This was, in effect, deciding that the arrest was constitutional; for no 
other question could legitimately arise than the power of the President to make the 
arrest without process, and the constitutionality of the restraint. In applying for 
this writ the party must allege that he ha3 been illegally arrested and restrained 
of his liberty, setiing foith the pretended grounds of restraint, if known. When 
brought before the court or judge, according to the principles of the common law, 
the question of guilt or innocence is never tried. The legality of the restraint is 
the only question that can be put in issue. But the judge or court would not, of 
course, issue the writ and bring the party before the court for a hearing unless, ao- 
oordiug to his own showing, his arrest was illegal. As Judge Leavitt refused the 



writ, it is, in effect, an affirmation of the legality of the restraint. Nor can this 
decision be justly attributed to political bias. For this judge was appointed by 
President Jackson, ma^y years before the existence of the Republican party; and 
he has never been accused or suspected during his long offici.il career of the slight- 
est divergence from the line of judicial rectitude. 

An appeal was however taken in the A'allandighara case to the Supreme Court of 
the United States, in an application for a writ of certiorari, or an 01 der on the Judge 
Advocate General to send the case to the Supreme Court for re hearing. This appli- 
cation was refused after a full hearing in open court. In other words, the decision 
of Judge Leavitt was sustained by the Supreme Court; and the question practically 
settled by the court of the last resort, that during a rebellion or invasion the Presi- 
dent may legally arrest suspected persons without process, and wheu in his opinion 
the public safety requires it, may suspend the right to the use of the writ of habeas 
corpus, and retain them in custody until the danger has passed. This right is there- 
fore affirmed by every department of the Government, by Congress, by the Presi- 
dent, and by the Courts. And finally the Copperhead National Convention at Chi- 
cago has stultified all. that Copperhead senators, and members, and newspapers, and 
stump speakers, have said in denunciation of "arbitrary arrests," by the nomination 
of Major General McClellan for the Presidency, after his "arbitrary arrest" of the 
members of the Maryland legislature. 

9th. But, it is demanded, " why are not these parties put on trial ?" "Admitting 
the necessity and legality of the arrests and restraint, surely they have a right to 
trial by a jury of their countrymen, and to be confronted with the witnesses who 
testiy against them." 

This is more specious than sound. In the clajs of arrests made to prevent the 
commission of crime, how would it be possible to put the parries on trial? How 
could you try a party for an offense not committed? The utmost that could be 
demanded would be the release of the suspected parties, on giving bond and satis- 
factory security to keep. the peace. And this has been done in every case wher?>, 
in the opinion of the President, it was compatible with the public safely. But put* 
ting a party under bonds is but another mode of restraint substituted fur imprison- 
ment. It is the same in priuciple. The rig!. t to do the former involve the right to 
do the latter. 

In cases of arrest, after the commission of the crime, what authority has the Pres- 
ident to try, condemn and punish, the offenders? The Constitution says: 

"No person shall be held to answer for a capital or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a pre- 
sentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in 
the militia, wliui in actual service in time of war or public danger." — (Article 6, Amendments to 
the Constitution ) 

Hence, the President and all his Cabinet, the Congress, and all the Courts com- 
bined, have not the constitutional power to put a man on trial for an alleged crime, 
except in the nature of a preliminary examination for the purpose of eliciting facts 
to justify restraint of the suspected party. This can be done only by a grand jury. 
The President has the constitutional right to arrest and restrain dining the continu- 
ance of the rebellion any offender, or person about to commit a crime, so long as the 
public safety may require it. To deny this right is to deny the validity of the Con- 
stitution. But. he has no right to try in the judicial sense, or to convict, condemn, 
or punish, any one; this is the province of the jury, the court, and the sheriff. 
Nor has the President put on trial, in the judicial sense, or punished any one not in 
the land or naval forces. When restrained of their liberty by placing them under 
guard, or within the walls of fortifications, the confinement was not in the nature of 
punishment, nor considered or intended to be considered infamous. They would be 
liable afterward as much as before such restraint to indictment and punishment by 
the civil authorities. 

It follows, therefore, that the President has proceeded as far as he has the right 
under the Constitution, and not one hairs-breadth farther. The " Copperheads con- 
demn him as a violater of the Constitution, for doing what the Constitution clearly 
authorises; and condemn him for not doing what the Constitution as clearly pro- 
hibits." 

But it is needless to pursue this subject. All these cavils and charges of uncon- 
stitutional^ are as empty- as the wind. They are without a decent pretext, They 
all vanish under a candid, impartial, analysis. No one can carefully examine them 
and avoid the conclusion that the measures of the existing Administration are in 
strict accordance with the Constitution and laws. 



%7 £J- 



T therefor* concede «lth the ^^^^J^'iSSS^ 
n.i'ded, disinterested, sel^acnficnig, *>«««£> J^J na'ion than Abraham 
God-fearing man never administered the atTau ot a g . th t c£)nnec . 

&»».. And that no , hv.ng man, ^{^S^SSZ for the ue xt four years, 
tion, could W more safely; ru ted in t be p e^ of ihe Amencan 

And that no one move nehly . de J^^o And that U all who believe as I do 
S&'&^v^rr nnd SfX their triumphant eleetion is as certain 
as the succession of day and night. 



PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN OF 1864. 

tmto*t coNG&Eseiimat committee. 



Hon. E. D. MORGAN, of New York, 
" JAS. HARLAN, of Iowa. 
'• L. M. MURR1LL, of Maine. 
(Senate.) 



Hon. E. B. WASHBURNE, of THinois. 
" R. B. YAN VALKENnURG, N. 1 
" J. A. GARFIELD, of Ohio. 
" J. G. BLAINE, of Maine. 
(Mouse of Represent lives.) 
:. D. MORGAN, Chairman. JAS. HARLAN, treasurer. 1>. N. COOLE.Y, Sec,/. 



Committee Rooms, Washington, D. C, Sept. 2, 1864. 
Dear Sir : The Union Congressional Committee, in addition to 
the documents already published, propose to issue immediately 
the following documents for distribution among the people. 

1. McClellan's Military Career Reviewed and Exposed. 

2. George PI. Pendleton, his Disloyal Record and Antecedents. 

3. The Chicago Copperhead Convention, the men who composed 

and controlled it. 

4. Base surrender of the Copperheads to the Rebels in arms. 

o. The Military and Naval Situation, and the Glorious Achieve- 
ments of our Soldiers and Sailors. 

6. A Few Plain Words with the Private Soldier. 

7. What Lincoln's Administration has done. 

8. The History of McClellan's " Arbitrary Arrest " of the Mary- 

land Legislature. , 

9. Can the Country Pay the Expenses of the War? 

10. Doctrines of the Copperheads North identical with those of 

the Rebels South. 

11. The Constitution Upheld and Maintained. 

12. Rebel Terms of Peace. 

13. Peace, to be Enduring, must be Conquered. 

14. A History of Cruelties and Atrocities ef the Rebellion. 

15. Evidences of a Copperhead Conspiracy in the Northwest. 
The above documents will be printed in English and German 

in eight or sixteen page pamphlets, and sent postage free, accord- 
ing to directions at the rate of one or two dollars per hundred 
copies. The plans and purposes of the Cepperheads having been 
disclosed by the action of the Chicago Convention, they should 
at once be laid before the loyal people of the country. There is 
but two months between this and the election, and leagues, clubs,, 
and individuals should lose no time in sending in their orders. 
Remittances should be made in Greenbacks or drafts on New 
York City, payable to the order of James Harlan. 

Address — Free. 

Hon. JAMES HARLAN, 

Washington, D. C. 
Very respectfully yours, &c, 

D. N. COOLEY, Secretary. 



Printed by Lemuel Towerd, ior tie Union Congressional Committee. 



LB D TJ5 



CAN THE COUNTRY PAY THE EXPENSES OF 


THE WAR? 


speech: 





or 



RON. HENRY G. STEBBINS, 

OF NEW YORK. 

DELIVERED IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, MARCH 4, 1864. 



The following speech was delivered in the House of Representatives of the United 
States, on the 4th day ol March, 1864, hy the Hon. Mr. Stebbins, Member of Congress 
i from the city of New York. Mr. Stebbins is Presidents of Board of Brokers of New 
' York, and was elected to Congress by the Democracy. His position therefore as a 
business rami- and a politicians alike recommends his views to the careful consideration 
of every unprejudiced mind, and the general circulation of the speech, it is believed, 
must have a wholesome influence in allaying any apprehension as to the financial 
ability of the Government in present crisis. 



The House having under consideration the bill 
(No. 87) to authorize the Secretary of the 
Treasury to sell any surplus gold in the Treas- 
ury — 

Mr. STEBBINS said: 

Mr. Speaker: When the proposition was in- 
troduced into this House to authorize the Sec- 
retary of the Treasury to sell the surplus gold 
which had ac 'urnulated and which was accumu- 
lating in the Treasury of the United States be- 
yond the amount demanded by the wants of the 
Treasury and the requirements of the law, 1 
' took the occasion to declare that I could not 
regard the Q,u : tion from any other point of view 
than its bearing upon the great interests of the 
'Government and of the people. 1 felt constrained 
|to forget my hostility to a paper-money system, 
and was only willing to remember the circum- 
stances supposed to have compelled ita intro- 
duction during the period of the war Great 
wars have always been carried on under such 
a system, jugdment and experience seemed to 
concur that this country could not hope to be 
an exception to the rule. I do not, therefore, 
now propose to discuss the system itself, nor at- 
tempt to point out its imperfections. I desire 
to see nothing but the great facts that we are 
in the midst of a civil war; that men and money 
are necessary for its prosecution; that the na- 
tional life must be preserved, the honor of our 
arms sustained, and the integrity of the laws of 
the United States vindicated. A financial sys- 
tem, the offspring of this great necessity, has 



jj grown up. It has been in operation for the 
past three years. It is iau-rv, oven in every part 
of our industrial system. We cannot abolish it 
j' if we would ; we ought not to do so if we could. 
J We must wait for peace to prevail before we 
J; undertake to pull down the structure and build 
ji up another. X© undermine and destroy it now 
I is to bury the nation under its ruins. 

The introduction of this perfectly legitimate 
; and necessity bill gave rise to a very re/harka- 
L ble debate. The bill was opposed because it 
|l conferred fresh and enlarged powers on the Sec- 
retary of the Treasury. The injurious effects of 
the rapid accumulation of gold in the Treasury, 
ji as shown in its advance and price, and the cob- 
[sequent advance in the prices of ail the neces- 
I sarres of life, were not denied; but these evih< 
I were not considered so important as the conse- 
ij quences which might flow from increasing the 
llSecretary's powers. The Government was ac- 
tually the unwilling instrument of the specula- 
tors on the seaboard, and was in the position of 
the capitalist who i:s lending money upon gold 
to advance its value ; was hoarding gold beyond 
its requirements, making it daily more and more 
scarce in the market, was itself depreciating the 
currency and feeding speculation ; and yet 
this House was disposed to consider the passage 
of a bill directing the sale of the surplus on hand 
as the greuter evil of the two. I did not so re- 
gard the subject. I felt that the national credit 
was endangered by this action on the gold 
market, and i was in favor of instructing th/ 
Secretary to sell, at his discretion, all the sr 



lions of mineral wealth folded in its vast embrace. 
They believe in the construction of the Pacific 
railroad ; in an exodus of millions of men to the 
Rocky mountains, prepared with their machin- 
ery to grind them to powder, and produce from 
their prolific sides huge volumes of treasure. 
They believe in the iron, the coal, the copper, 
the lead, the silver, the cinnabar, and all the 
valuable metals which they know to exist in 
unlimited quantities within that vast region of 
seven hundred million acres ; and if they are 
willing to buy the funded debt of the nation on 
this secruity, how can you reconcile it that the 
$400,000,000 currency, based in reality on the 
same security, should sell at thirty-three and a 
third to forty per cent, discount? "There is 
more in this, if our philosphy could but find it 
out." Let us examine some of the reasons why 
this confidence should exist. Sir, in the very 
remarkable and highly valuable report of Hon. 
Samuel B. Ruggles, made in September of last 
year, to the International Statistical Congress ft t 
Berlin, on the resources of the United States — a 
paper that should be circulated all over the 
country — T find the following valuable statistics 
on the subject of the increase of tne population 
of the United States when compared with other 
countries. 

The population of France increased thirty- 
seven per cent, in sixty years, from 1801 to 
1861 ; of Prussia, seventy-nine per cent, in for 
ty-five years, from 1 8 1 ft" to 1861; of England 
and Wales one hundred and twenty-one per 
cent, in sixty years, against an increase in the 
United States of five hundred and ninety-three 
per cent, in the same length of time. 

The increase of the national wealth within 
the last ten years is thus presented in the same 
report; assessed value Of property actually 
taxed in I860, leaving out the assessed value of 
slaves, was $6,174,780,000, and in 1860, $14,- 
223 618,068 ; leaving an increase in the decade 
of $8,048,825 840. Mr. Ruggles thus distributes 
this vast increase of the national wealth: to 
New England $7 35,754,244 ; the middle Atlantic 
or carrying and commercial States, from New 
York to Maryland, inclusive, $1,834,911,579, 
and to the food producing interior itself, embrac- 
ing the eight great States of Ohio, Indiana, Illi- 
nois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, and 
Missouri, $2 810,000. 

Now, sir, at this rate of increase, in 1870, six 
years hence, we shall have $35,000,000,000 of 
national wealth, and in 1880, in only sixteen 
years, 80. 00o 000,000. 

Sir, the legal tender currency of $400,000,- 
000, if divided equally a nong these States, to 
be paid by them out of this increased wealth, 
would have been extinguished in the first six 
months of the year I860, and the balance-Mv- 
maining on hand < the increase of this wealth 
of the ten years preceediug would have been the 
enormous sum of $7,500 000,000. 

These figures are presented, Mr. Speaker, in 
order to show how unimportant is this amount 
of currency when regarded or examined in con 
nection with the nation's ability to pay it. And 
yet we are told that the country is on the verge 



of hopeless ruin. No, sir. Let the Secretary 
only adhere to the principles and to the language 
of his report In the language of the poet, the 
nation 

" Is far as the farthest from ruin ; 
The fields cem to know what ihcir master is doing; 
And pasture and orch ird anil cornfield and lea 
All catch the infection, as generous as lie." 

In this connection, or in connection with that 
vast section of this country which stretches 
away from the Missouri to the Pacific, so forci- 
bly alluded to in the report to which I have re- 
ferred, let me request my colleague from New 
York, who is filled with apprehension of coming 
woe in the shape of national ruin throwing out of 
the creation of $400 000. Ooo of paper money, to 
pass for a few moments from this hall to the 
foot of the great marble staircase that leads to 
the upper story of this building. His attention 
will be arrested at the foot of the steps by a 
magnificent work of art illustrating 1 the declara- 
tion of the distinguished Birfhap B-rkeley — for 
[ believe this country is indebted to him for that 
brief but expressive sentence — " Westward the 
course of empire takes Us way." 

Sir, we all know my colleague to be a man of 
fine imagination and of quick perceptions As 
he will gaze on this effort of the gifted artist, 
I he will in spite of himself find his heart swel- 
ling under the inspirations that will sweep un- 
bidden over his kinder nature and his gentler 
judgment. Sir, he will acknowledge that in the 
truths of to day the prophetic declarations pf 
the writer of that sentence have been already 
realized. The course of empire has been west- 
ward. Hundreds of thousands of men have 
surged over to the shores Of the Pacific like a 
I flood, and now, like the ti 1 I pulses of the sea, 
j are rolling backward again east to the Rocky 
| Mountainsto meet the still rolling western waves 
at the same point. On the sides of those moun- 
| tains, and in the basins and vall'eys which they 
j cr.eate, an empire of millions of human bouIs are 
I destined ere long to concentrate their mighty 
| enegies, struggling with the seaboard for the 
supremacy in material wealth. Sir, they will be ' 
indorsers of this $400,000,000, Twenty-five 
millions of people living to day have made these 
bonde or obligations. Forty two millions of 
people will guarantee them in 1870. Why, sir, 
that is only six years hence, and accorning to 
the census of I860, fifty-six millions will look 
after the debt if it is not paid in 1880, only six- 
teen years hence, backed up by $82,000,000,000 
of capital or national wealth. ,« 8ir, no commen*. 
is necessary in the face of these wonderful fig- 
ures! 

But, Mr. Speaker, let us for the sake of argu- 
ment suppose, what I will admit is hardly sup- 
posable, that this Government should, in the 
course, of its struggles, overwhelmed with new 
embrassments, find itself unable to pay its inter- 
ests on its funded debt for one or more years, 
what would bo the result? Viewed in the light 
of history it might bring national concern and 
mortification, but not national disgrace. Nor 
would it retard our national growth for a single 
hour. The soil would still produce its teeming 



millions of grain ; the Pacific elope its immense 
treasures of gold and silver. The tide of popu 
latiou would still sweep in in hundreds of thou- 
sands. Our industry would still flourish, our 
people labor, aud the country, in all its great- 
ness and its glory still remain. Sir, we have 
already seen iu ourown brief history that which 
will serve as an illustration as to what may be 
seen again upon a larger scale. 

There are two memorable instances on record 
which are worth more than a passing thought 
for the splendid lessons tiiat they teach. 

The western States, led on by a spirit of en- 
terprise far in advance of the actual develop- 
ment in material wealth aud in population, con- 
tracted debts for their internal improvements. 
In a dark financial hour they failed to pay their 
interest, and their obligations declined from a 
premium of twenty per cent, down to eighty per 
cent, below par. The great State of Ohio trem- 
bled to her centre at the time for her apprehen- 
sions and fears. And powerful PennS3'lvania 
with all her wealth saw her securities sixty per 
cent, below par. Some years elapsed before the 
western States responded. But, sir, they did 
respond, nobly responded, paid every dollar, 
and so vindicated the judgment of the pioneers 
who marked out the system of internal improve- 
ments. They vindicated the judgment of the 
investers in their securities who bought as men 
now buy the fuuded debt of the United States 
on what they see and believe iu the future of 
this country. 

Hence, 1 would urge upon the Secretary of 
the Treasury the great importance of acting 
with promptitude upon the clear and compre- 
hensive language contained in his report; to 
borrow in the open money market, and at the 
njarket price, every dollar hereafter demanded' 
by the wants of the Government. I would 
advise a sale of the funded debt to any ex- 
tent necessary ; and 1 would urge upon this 
House to exhaust its ingenuity in showing the 
magnitude of the security offered by the nation, 
and the g>'eat and growing power of the Re- 
public, in order to facilitate the Secretary in 
the most effective manner in ail his future ne- 
gotiations. 

The States of Indiana and Illinois are worthy 
of especial mention as affording the evidence of 
the wonderful recuperation of our people within 
the State limits, it is within the recollection of 
many members of this House, indeed all of 
them, how the realization of the financial disi:s 
ters that broke over those young States of the 
West, and swept the sensibilities of both hemis- 
pheres. Europe was largely interested in there 
obligations, and very large amount- 01 them 
were held in this country. These S .tes were 
covered with ignominy and reproach, and they 
were compelled to endure the base charges of 
repudiation and bankruptcy. Sir, they were 
never for one moment bankrupt, nor did they 
even for one moment falter in the resolution to 
repair the disasters of that fearful period by an 
early liquidation of all their indebtedness. Sir, 
the example of these States to their brethren of 
this country will live in all coming time, and it 



stands out, aud will ever stand Out, as the most 
incontrovertible testimony that the nation of 
which they form so magnificent, so illustrious 
and so distinguished a part, will pay everj' dol 
lar, both principal and interest, be it funded 
debt or legal teuder — every dollar expended to 
perpetuate the structure of this Government 
in all its splendid proportions, in all its graceful 
outlines. 

The other instance to which I would refer is 
the railroad crisis. Railroad btocks and bonda 
passed in public estimation from a high premium 
almost to zero. Thirty-three thousand miles 
had been built, costing $ 1, 30(1 Ouu, 000, or an 
atnouut equal to the present national debt; 
miles of railroad built by the enterprise of our 
people, and more than all Europe besides. Sir, 
when the hour came, aud these securities were 
unsalable ; when these corporations did not pay 
their interest, and when men who held them 
seemed in despair, what did it accomplish for 
the system itself? It did not destroy the rail- 
svays; it did not diminish traffic; it did not stay 
the strong arm of the agriculturist; it did not 
retard the growth of our population. No, sir, 
the system was bound to live; it belonged to 
this, the nineteenth century ; it was conceived 
in great foresight and wisdom, aud it survived 
through new economies aud the introduction of 
wiser aud more prudent counsels in its man- 
agement. 

Who suffered by this remarkable crisis? Not 
the owners of the property, for they saved their 
money in the revival of the prices of both bonds 
and stocks; nor the country, for it remains 
teeming with prosperity, productiveness, and 
power, stimulated and strengthened by thia 
gigantic system of internal improvements. 

Now, sir, where is the difference between the 
funded debt of a great community and the 
funded debt of a smaller community^, or the debt 
and obligations of incorpor ted companies-? 
Show me the difference in the character of the 
calamity that would befall the Government if 
we should fall to pay interest for a single year, 
and the calamity that befell the State of Illinois 
under the like circumstances or the circum- 
stances to which 1 have referred. 

The conclusion to be drawn from all this, Mr. 
Speaker, I take to be simply that the only thing 
which the country has to fear is the continued 
depreciation of the $400,000,000 of legal tender, 
which the people sell at thirty three to forty per 
cent, discount under the influence of the marvel- 
ous feors generated and encouraged by those 
who are utterly ignorant of the power and re- 
sources of the nation. To my understanding all 
our trouble lies with the legal tender. It is a 
matter of no consequence to the people of the 
country as a nation, as to what the funded debt 
may sell at in the mutations of the future. The 
Government has only to look after the interest 
upon the debt and the principal at its maturity. 
With the currency, which every man is bound 
by law to receive for his property, it is another 
affair. There is no time fixed for its final extin- 
guishment, and our enemies seek to discredit 
and destroy it both at home and abroad. Peo 



6 



pie who take it hasten to invest it in real prop- 
erty, while speculation lives and flourishes by 
holding it up to public o<lium and contempt. — 
The more speculation can discredit it, the more 
speculation thrives. 

Speculation is sleepless in its efforts to dis 
credit it ; and yet, sir, there is a way to remedy 
the difficulty. It is by familiarizing the people 
with the power, resources, and wealth of the 
cation ; and this in my judgment is the duty of 
every Representative in this House, and of 
every intelligent and reflecting citizen out of it. 
If this $400,000,000 of currency were secured 
to be paid to morrow, if the nation could begin 
to see it expire by the establishment of a sink- 
ing fund of ten per cent, per annum, which 
would destroy it all in ten years, or if, by legis- 
lation, the Secretary was directed to burn 
$100 000 of it per day until the whole §400,000, ! 
t>00 were destroyed, do you imagine that you | 
would hear anything more of a rise in gold?! 
Sir, it would be the death of the speculators on 
the sea-board, and the nation would rise from | 
its apprehensions full of fresh power and energy. ! 
So small an effort as this, in my opinion, wuuld J 
reduce the expenses of this Government thirty- j 
three and one-third per cent per annum. If, 
sir, I am right in this conclusion, why should ! 
the people he inflamed with fresh fear's by the i 
dark predictions of impending bankruptcy and I 
ruin J And why are we not bound to present, 
in contradiction to statements such as I have ' 
referred to, facte that lead the mind to an en- i 
tirely different judgment? 

Sir, I repeat with all the emphasis I am capa- j 
ble of expressing, that in advocating every mea- 
sure for strengthening our financial system ; by 
encouraging the Secretary of the Treasury to j 
persevere in carrying out tne ideas distinctly j 
presented in his annual report ; by pointing out, j 
to the extent of my humble ability, the way to 
roll back the current that has set in in such \ 
irresistible force against the public credit; by I 
pointing out in even so feeble a manner the vast j 
resources of our country, and showing that an 
issue of $400,000,000 of currency, which, after 
all, is only a substitute for the gold and bank 
circulation it has displaced, I fulfill my duty as 
a Representative. The people, who are to be 
swept away in case of so fearful a calamity as 
national bankruptcy, will sustain me in my 
efforts, and will sustain all those who take the 
same course in the midst of the emergencies of 
this fearful contest. 

In the course of the debate, Mr. Speaker, the 
distinguished gentleman from Massachusetts who 
advocated the proposition to empower the Sec- 
retary of the Treasury to anticipate the interest 
on the public debt, and so dispose of the surplus 
gold in the Treasury, and avoid its accumulation 
hereafter by the same means, declaring that, dis- 
guise or conceal it as we might, the currency 
had depreciated to the extent indicated by the 
price of gold. 

Sir the quotation daily made for gold in the 
New York market is certainly an indication for 
the day of the positive depreciation of the cur- 
rency. Any one who owns gold can certainly 



sell it at the New York quotation for paper. No 
one can deny the truth of this proposition ; but 
I submit to that gentleman, and to those who 
concur with him in opinion, whether there are 
not many good grounds for the belief that there 
are causes operating to produce this depreciation 
unknown before in the history of paper money, 
and whether some of them may not be regarded 
as wholly artificial, and capable of being easily 
exposed and dispelled? Sir, I think there are 
artificial means constantly being used to influ- 
ence the price of gold. These means have been 
employed since the suspension of specie pay- 
ments. They have increased from month to 
month for the past year, junt in proportion to 
the growth of speculation, which to day exceeds 
in volume anything ever known before in the 
history of civilization. It has become necessary 
for the safety of this huge structure of illegiti- 
mate traffic that the price of gold should con- 
tinue to rise in respect to the currency; and, 
sir, it will not be permitted to decline if human 
ingenuity and human effort can prevent it. 
Such a state of things must give birth to every 
species of device and to every kind of artificial 
process. They will come in the form of mis- 
representations of the military situation of the 
country and exaggerated statements of any de- 
feats in the field; they will be in the shape of 
extensive combinations for the temporary pur- 
chase of the fl latiug gold in the market; in the 
false statements as to the character and condi- 
tion of the public debt, and in the objects and 
designs of the Government; and all this is ren- 
dered more easily available by the ignorance 
that is permitted to prevail as to the resource* 
and power of the nation. 

To illustrate my view more fully as to "causes 
hitherto unknown" now operating to the pre- 
judice of the currency, I would ask the House 
to regard New York city the great commercial 
and financial center, connected by the electric 
wires with every city and every town of any 
importance in every State not in rebellion, away 
to the far off Pacific. The opinions of repre- 
sentative men are solemnly uttered in this 
House that national bankruptcy and repudia- 
tion are surging at our feet to ingulf us in it* 
formidable waves. ■ The lightning that carries 
thi3 fearful verdict to the people of the country 
flashes the tidings to the city of New York 
almost instantly from innumerable points in the 
shape of positive orders to buy gold, to buy 
merchandise, to buy commodities. Thousands 
of orders reach that great mart in an hour, and 
through all hours of the day, and hence a traf- 
fic, boundless in extent, and all in one direction, 
all to purchase property at the market prices, 
without limit, is carried on in that city by a 
frightened and phrenzied population. Has the 
ourrenCj depreciated because of these transac- 
tions? r national bankruptcy really here be- 
cause of such declarations? I cannot so regard 
it. The truth is that this modern instrument, 
electricity, is playing a new and most import- 
ant part in the affairs of men, and for the first 
time in the greatest drama in the history of 
civilization. It so conoentrates and so intenei- 



fees the incidents of human life, so entirely con- 
trols and governs them, that those who measure 
the present by the past utterly fail to arrive at 
proper or just conclusions. Sir, I look for the 
moment when the people of the United States, 
moved by different impulses, influenced by 
calmer counsels, led by wise judgments, and 
enlightened by the spirit of truth, will see with 
a clear vision the actual condition of their conn 
try, and be overwhelmed with shame and morti- 
tication at their own folly. 

Suppose, Mr. Speaker, the existence of some 
vast building or theatre crowded with thou- 
sands of human beings, all intent upon the en- 
joyment of some great dramatic spectacle ; and 
suppose that in the midst of their engrossment 
of the play, in obedience to a concerted signal, 
a few voices should raise the appalling cry of 
lire, and rush through the narrow outlets to- 
ward the street. Does it need any one to fore 
lei! the fearful disasters that might follow the 
efforts of that frenzied multitude in htoeir at 
tempt? to escape through the contracted and 
crowded corridors? Sir, hundreds might be 
crushed to death, while thousands were being 
robbed by those who had precipitated the 
calamity. Sir, will any one undertake to de- 
clare that the building is really on fire because 
of the infuriated cry of fire? I think not, sir; 
and 3'et such is the condition of the people of 
this country on the great question of the na'ion- 
al currency. Hundreds have been crying fire 
for the past three years, while multitudes have 
been endeavoring to escape the fearful calamity 
which is said to threaten the paper syBfcem. it- 
is to be entirely demolished, say our enemies : 
and while the ery continues, and every imagin- 
able auxiliary is being used to magnetize the 
nation into such a belief, and while the people 
are rushing out pf the building in mad dis- 
order a system of pillage is going forward thai 
defies description, and human ingenuity is taxed 
to its utmost capacity to keep up the alarm, that, 
the spoils of the enterprise may augment, aud 
the opportunities for plunder survive a little 
while longer. 

I regard, sir, the depreciation of the currency 
of the United States from thirty-three to forty 
{>er c«nt. discount for gold as a monslrous crime 
or a fearful delusion; I regard every man as 
guilty of crime who does anything to assist that 
depreciation. While the few are benefiting by 
it, while the capitalists are rejoicing over their 
advantages, the masses of our countrymen are 
Buffering tearfully, and muet coutinue to suffer 
still mom, unless we awake to the magnitude of 
the crisis, and use the great facts that God hai 
furnished us with to counteract the trouble ai/a 
restore the public confidence in all classes of our 
securities. 

Sir, it may be urged that the most gifted in- 
tellects aod the most profound wisdom have 
be«u;exerted on the aide of truth for the benefit 
of the nation, and that no good reason can 
be assigned for the declaration that which is 
false has been the most extensively circulated 
through the modera machinery of the telegraph, 
answer, that during the whole of this 



war, certainly during the existence of theThirty 
Eighth Congress, the talent of this House ha* 
not been exerted on the side of those question* 
which are operating so powerfully on the inter- 
ests of the people apart from the war. The war 
itself, the measures lor its prosecution and final 
settlement, have engrossed its entire attention, 
while for the want of practical legislation the 
solid industry of the country is being subordi 
nated by wild speculation, and the currency 
rotting away daily, to the almost irreparable 
damage of the national interests. 

But, sir, I look hopefully into the future. I 
cannot but believe that there is a great change 
approaching. The Secretary of the Treasury 
has indicated the policy which he desigus here- 
atter to persue. He asks no more legal-tender 
money from this Congress, He marks out for 
himself a well defined line in the direction of 
a sound and stable state of things, along which 
he is resolutely determined to pass. A man 
reads with no understanding who does not de- 
tect such a resolution in his report to this Con- 
gress. Sir, this policy will have the effect to 
check the speculative madness of the present 
hour; it will have the effect to re-establish pub- 
lic confidence in the power of the nation and 
in the soundness of its obligations; it will re- 
store, to sanity those who are mad, aud bring 
about a reaction of public sentiment in favor 
of the currency which so many have been dis- 
honoring, and which, for a time, is indispensable 
to the safety aud life of the nation. 

When this moment arrives, as arrive it as- 
suredly will, we shall agaiu realize the inrlu 
ence of electricity. The current of disorder 
will as suddenly subside; it will be rolled back- 
ward to its source with an impetuosity of terri- 
ble strength. The wires will again be in re- 
quisition, and flash from all parts of the United 
States to the great centre of traffic; but con- 
veying very different tidings from what they 
have so long been used as the instrument. Sir, 
pa that day 1 commend New York to the espe- 
cial notice of this House. With the decline ia 
gdd hugh values will disappear, from thirty- 
three and one third to fifty per cent, iu a 
single day, and the masses of our people begin 
to find the proceeds of their labor again equai 
to their necessities. 

Sir, it is our solemn duty to assist in bring- 
ing about such a state of things. The first 
step we are bound to take is to relieve the Gov 
eminent from the fearful position of being a 
hoarder of gold. It canae-t afford to be an ia- 
"trurnent in the hands of its enemies.-.a partici 
pator in the depreciation of its currency, a 
party to the speculators of the seaboard. It can 
not be auxiliary to that without precipitating its 
own ruin. 

The second step should be to allay the public 
fears as to the value and extent of the legal- 
tender issue. The amount is but $400,000,000, 
not $ 1, 0<H), 000,000. Instead of an unlimited 
issue hereafter, not one dollar more i3 to be 
added; but, on the contrary, the amount in cir- 
culation 13 to be reduced and a more enlarged 
system of taxation established. Such, from the 



8 



language of the Secretary's report, is to be the 
future policy of the Government. 

The third is to exhibit and keep before the 
people the absolute resources and power of the 
nation, and show the difference between its 
ability to meet the formidable emergencies of 
this war and the ability of other nations at other 
periods to meet the emergencies of their revolu- 
tionary and other contests, because of the com- 
parison that is constantly being instituted ; to 
show that no parallel whatever can be drawn 
between the struggles been nations in the Old 
World. Comparisons are frequently instituted 
between the condition of the currency of the 
United States and that of the French assignate 
(luring the period of tke Revolution. Why, sir, 
France issued $9,000,000,000 of that kind of pa- 
per within about the same time that we have 



issued $400,000,000, or less than five per cent of 
that of France. Sir, there can be no parallel be- 
tween the cases, certainly none when we regard 
the question in connection with the resources of 
the two Powers. The increases of the popula 
tion of this country over that of France for the 
past ten decades is a plain answer to the question. 
In conclusion, Mr. Speaker, we must instruct 
the people as to the difference between currency 
and funded debt, a thing that seems to be e* 
little understood. If we keep constantly before 
the public view the vast security afforded for the 
final extinguishment of our debt, and show ouj 
abundent resources to meet the oontinued de- 
mands of the war for a long time to come, in 
case it should be necessary to continue it, there 
need be no fear of bankruptcy or repudiation. 



PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN OF 1864. 

ONION EXECUTIVE CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEE. 



Hon. E. B. WASHBURNE, of Illinois. 
" R. B. VAN VALKENBURG, N. 
" J. A. GARFIELD, of Ohio. 
" J. G. BLAINE of Maine. 

(House of Representatives.) 
E. D. MORGAN, Chairman, JAS. HARLAN, Treasurer, D. N. COOLEY, Sec'y 



Hon. E. D. MORGAN, of New York. 
" JAS. HARLAN, of Iowa. 
" K M. MORRILL, of Maine. 
(Senate.) 



Committee Rooms, Washington, D. C, Sept. 2, 1864. 
Dear Sir: The Union Congressional Committee, in addition to 
he documents already published, propose to issue immediately 
he following documents for distribution among the people. 

1. McClellan's Military Career Reviewed and Exposed. 

2. George II. Pendleton, his Disloyal Record and Antecedents. 

3. The Chicago Copperhead Convention, the men who composed 

and controlled it. 

4. Base surrender of the Copperheads to the Rebels in arms. 

5. The Military and Naval Situation, and the Glorious Achieve- 

ments of our Soldiers and Sailors. 
8. A Few Plain Words with the Private Soldier. 

7. What Lincoln's Administration has done. 

8. The History of McClellan's " Arbitrary Arrest" of the Mary- 

land Legislature. 

9. Can the Country Pay the Expenses of the War? 

10. Doctrines of the Copperheads North identical with thoae of 
the Rebels South. 

11. The Constitution Upheld and Maintained. 

12. Rebel Terms of Peace. 

13. Peace, to be Enduring, must be Conquered. 

14. A History of Cruelties and Atrocities of the Rebellion. 

15. Evidences of a Copperhead Conspiracy in the Northwest. 



Address — 



Free. 



Hon. JAMES HARLAN, 

Washington, D. C. 



he. /# 



the' war commenced by the rebels.— copper- 
heads OP THE NORTH THEIR ALLIES. 



SPEECH 



JOHN D. DEFREES, 

1 IN 

WASHINGTON, D. C, 

MONDAY EVENING, AUGUST 1, 1864. 



PUBLISHED BY THE UNION CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEE. 



We are soon to exercise the elective franchise, secured to as 
by our admirable form of government. 

Every citizen should desire to use it so as to produce the great- 
est good to the country. To do so he ought to seek every possi- 
ble means of forming a correct judgment; and when his mind is 
made up, his own conviction of the right ought to control him, 
unawed by partizan prejudice or by the clamor of those who as- 
sume to be party leaders. 

To aid in forming a correct judgment it is well to bring to our 
recollection many historical facts, which cannot be contradicted 
or perverted. 

Directly after the American Kevolution the States entered into 
articles of confederation for their government. Tile experiment 
proved a failure. The subsequent formation and adoption of the 
federal Constitution was for the purpose of " securing a more per- 
fect Union ; " of constituting the United States one nation — a 
Republic — or, in the language of Washington, of " consolidating 
the Union." 

So complete a system of government never before existed, and 
it became the admiration of the lovers of liberty throughout the 
world. The prayers of its founders, as they passed from earth, 
were for its perpetuity. It was received by their children am 1 
cherished as an inheritance above all price. With them the aaaa 
who dared to lisp of its destruction was branded as a traitor and 
an enemy of mankind. 

L. Towers, printer. 



In time, bold, bad men, disappointed in their ambitions aspira- 
tions, began to conspire for its overthrow. They knew that their 
designs could only be accomplished through the means of party 
organization. The democratic party, which then had the ascend- 
ency, was selected for that* purpose. They became its leaders 
and began insidiously to poison the miuds of their followers. 

It would require more time than allowed in an ordinary 
address to give the progress of their plans, but the result is to 
be seen in the present condition of our country. 

Notwithstanding the efforts of the conspirators favorably to 
prepare their followers for the event, when their treason culmi- 
nated in their attack upon Fort Sumpter, the whole people of the 
free States declared that they would put down the rebellion at 
all hazards. Their mighty uprising for this purpose was the 
grandest and most glorious spectacle ever presented to the con- 
templation of mankind, whilst the fact that so many of the same 
people have since shown themselves lost to the feelings of patriot- 
ism which then controlled them, is the most melancholy event 
on the page of history. 

Then, they determined to stand by the President in his efforts 
to enforce the laws and to maintain the integrity and supremacy 
of the Goverment, 

Now. many of the same men denounce all his efforts with a bit- 
terness equalled only by the denunciations of the traitors in arms 
against that Government. 

Why this change and how produced '. The answer is apparent 
— by assumed leaders of the Democratic party, who are now 
acting in concert with the enemies of their country in the vain 
hope that they may thus achieve political power. 

Ilelying on arousing the partizan feelings of the past, they re- 
sort to the most glaring falsehoods to accomplish their purpose. 
They now tell their followers that the war was commenced by 
the people of the free States against their innocent and inoffensive 
brethren of the South, when they know that they utter an un- 
truth. 

The people cannot be thus deceived. They remember but too 
well the action of the conspirators immediately after the election 
of Mr. Lincoln and previous to the expiration of Mr. Buchanan's 
term of office. 

Look at the record : 

December 20,1860. — Capture of Fort Moultrie and Castle Pinck- 
ney by the South Carolina troops. 



3 

January 3, 1861. — Capture of Fort Pulaski by the Savannah 
troops. 

January 3. — The United States arsenal at Mount Yernon Ala- 
bama with 200,000 stand of arms seized by the Alabama troops. 

Jahury 4. — Fort Morgan in Mobile Bay taken by Alabama 
troops. 

January 9. — The United States steamer Star of the West was 
fired into and driven off by the rebel batteries on Morris Island 
when attempting to furnish Fort Sumter with supplies. 

January 9. — Mississippi seceded ; vote of the convention, 84 
to 39. 

January 10. — Fort Jackson, Fort Phillip, and Pike, near New 
Orleans, captured by the Louisiana troops. 

January 11. — Alabama seceded ; vote of convention, 62 to 29. 

January 11. — Florida seceded. 

January 14. — Capture of Pensacola navy- yard and Fort McRea 
by Alabama troops. 

January 18. — Surrender of Baton Rouge arsenal to Louisiana 
troops. 

January 19.-^-Georgia seceded; vote of convention,- 203 to 87. 

January 26. — Louisiana seceded ; vote of convention, 113 to 
19. New Orleans Mint and Custom House taken. 

February 1. — Texas seceded; vote of convention, 166 to 7. 
Submitted to a vote of the people February 23 and took effect 2d 
of March. 

February 2. — Seizure of Little Rock arsenal by Arkansas 
troops. 

February 4. — Surrender of the revenue cutter Castle to the 
Albania authorities. 

February 5. — The Southern Congress met at Montgomery, 
Alabama. 

February 8. — The provisional constitution adopted. 

February 9. — Jeff Davis and Alex. Stephens were elected Pres- 
ident and Vice President of what they call the southern confed- 
eracy. 

February 17. — Twiggs transferred the United States property in 
Texas to the rebels. 

February 18. — Jeff Davis was inaugurated President of the 
conspirators. 

March 2. — The United States revenue cutter was seized by the 
rebels in Texas. 

Mr. Lincoln was sworn into office on March 4, 1861, after all 



the above treasonable acts had taken place. Before taking the 
oath required by the Constitution, " to execute the office of the 
President of the United States, and to preserve, protect, and de- 
fend the Constitution of the United States," he read his inaugural 
address, in which he said : 

"Apprehension seems to exist among the people of the Southern States that by 
the accession of a Republican Administration their property and their peace and per- 
sonal security are to be endangered. There never has been any serious cause for 
such apprehension. Indeed, the most ample evidence to the contrary has all the 
■while existed and been open to their inspection. It is found in all the public 
speeches of him who now addresses you. I do but quote from those speeches when 
1 declare that "I have no power directly, or indirectly, to interfere with the insti- 
tution of slavery in the States where it exists. I believe I have no lawful power to 
do so and I have no inclination to do so." 

The Congress, whose terra had expired the day on which Mr, 
Lincoln was inaugurated, had done every thing in its power to dis- 
arm the apprehensions of the southern States on the same ques- 
tion. It had passed a resoluion submitting an amendment of the 
Constitution so as to make any interference with slavery impos- 
sible. It created governments for three new Territories, Nervada, 
Dacotah, and Colorado, and passed no law excluding slavery from 
any of them. / 

The conspirators, however, continued their efforts for the over- 
throw of the Government : 

March 5. Beauregard assumed the command of the troops besieging Fort 
Sumpter. 

March 13. Alabama ratified the constitution of the traitor States: vote of the 
convention, 87 to 6. 

March 16. Georgia ratified the constitution of the rebel States, and, previous to 
the first of April, all the States in rebellion had done the same thing. 

The attack on Fort Sumpter was commenced on the 12th of 
April, 1861, and after thirty-four hours bombardment it surren- 
dered. 

All this took place before Mr. Lincoln asked for troops to en- 
force the laws. 

In view of these facts, no honest man can or will say that the 
war was commenced by the present Administration. To do so 
would be a proclamation of his own infamy. 

Those of the North who are co-workers with the conspirators 
some times say, in justification, that the South had suffered wrong 
at the hands of the Northern people. The assertion is as false 
as the charge that the present Administration commenced the 
war. Let Mr. Stephens, the Vice President of the rebel States, 
be heard on that point. He, certainly, with them is good au- 
thority. In a speech made in convention against secession, he 
said: 



"Pause," I entreat you, and consider for a moment what reason you can give that 
will even satisfy yourselves in calmer moments — what reasons can you give to your 
fellow-sufferers in the calamity that it will bring upon us? What reasons can you 
give to the nations of the earth to justify it? They will be the calm and deliberate 
judges in this case? and to what cause or one overt act can you point ou which to 
rest the plea of justification? What right has the North assailed? What interest 
of the South has been invaded? What justice has been denied? and what claim 
founded injustice and right has been withheld? Can either of you to-day name 
one governmental act of wrong deliberate^ and purposely done by the Government 
at Washington of which the South has a right to complain? I challenge the an- 
swer! While, on the other hand, let me show the facts (and believe me, gentle- 
men, I am not here the advocate of the North, but I am here the friend, the firm 
friend and lover of the South and her institutions, and for this reason I speak thus 
plainly and faithful to yours, mine, and every other man's interest, the words of 
truth and soberness,) of which I wish you to judge, and I will only state facts which 
are clear and undeniable, and which now stand as records authentic in the history 
of our country. 

When we of the South demanded the slave trar4« or the importation of Africans 
for the cultivation of our lands, did they not yield the right for twenty years? 
When we asked a three-fifths representation in Congress for our slave?, was it not 
granted ? When we asked and demanded the return of any fugitive from justice, 
or the recover}^ of those persons owing labor or allegiance, was it not incorporated 
in the^Constitution? and again ratified and strengthened in the Fugitive Slave Law 
of 1850? 

Do you reply that in many instances they have violated this compact, and have 
not been faithful to their engagements? As individuals and local communities they 
may have done so, but not b}' the sanction of Government, for that has always been 
true to Southern interests. Again, gentlemen, look at another fact: vihen we have 
asked that more territory should be added, that we might spread the institution of 
slavery, have they not yielded to our demands and given us Louisiana, Florida, and 
Texas, out of which four States have been carved, and ample territory for four more 
to be added in due time, if you, by this unwise and impolitic act, do not destroy this 
hope, and, perhaps, by it lose all, and have your last slave wrenched from you by 
stern military wble, by the vindictive decree of a universal emancipation which may 
reasonably be expected to follow ? 

But, again, gentlemen, what have we to gain by this proposed change of our re- 
lation to the General Government? We have always had the control, and can yet 
if we remain in it, and are as united as we have been. We have had a majority of 
the Presidents chosen from the South, as well as the control and management of 
those chosen from the North. We have had sixty years of Southern Presidents to 
their twenty-four, thus controlling the Executive Department. 

ISTo man has controverted, or can controvert these facts. Who 
then so base as to justify the rebellion? 

While the Government is using every possible effort to main- 
tain its existence, an organization has been entered into by many 
persons at the North to co-operate with the conspirators in its de- 
struction. To accomplish their object, assuming the specious 
name of the " Peace Democracy," they resort to the meanest acts 
of the most grovelling demagogue to prejudice the people against 
the Administration. Read the following extracts from speeches 
and newspapers, made and written in the North in aid of the 
conspirators. 

Speaking of President Lincoln, the Sellingrove (Pa.) Times 
says : 

"He is a bloody monster. He is hell's Pandora box brought to earth and re- 
opened for the destruction of this foolish people, who hug him to their bosoms un- 
til, like an Egyptian adder, he stings them to death. By his elevation to power, 



every mean principle in the man's composition ha3 been brought out and fanned 
into a blaze of destructi .n. He is a liar, a thief, a robber, a brigand, a pirate, per- 
jurer, a traitor, a coward, a hypocrite, a cheat, a trickster, a murderer, a tyrant, 
an unmitigated scoundrel, and an infernal fool, in less than one year he has, by 
the force of circumstances, certainly not by his wisdom, became absolute monarch 
over a race of imbeciles, who, because they deserve it, have become willing slaves 
and vassals. He commenced the present war with dishonest motives ; he has car- 
ried it on under false pretences; and, in the end, he will so effectually cheat the 
people out of their liberties that they cannot recover them unless through bloody 
revolution," 

A Mr. J. D. Murphy, a "Peace Democrat" of NewHamshire. 
on the 22d January last, emitted his poison, as follows : 

"The Democrats have submitted to the despotic sway of Abe Lincoln for three 
years, thinking it better to endure wrong for & short time than to risk all by a last 
appeal to arms. But now the* time is coming when we can change our rulers. 
Rather than submit four years longer to Abe Lincoln, and be overrun by the hordes 
of his hireling soldiery, let us ring out the cry of old, 'To your tents, O Israel?' 
Democrats should arm and organize, and drill clubs, companies, battalions, regiments 
and brigades, for these blood thirsty abolitions and shoddyite thieves, and traitors 
are a wind broken, spavined, dyspeptic race, and one regiment of Democrats could 
whip three of them." , 

This man is for " peace" with the conspirators, but for war with 
the freemen of the North, his neighbors ! Shame ! 

Head still further extracts — the outpouring of impotent wrath 
and vileness : 

" There has never been anything called for by the South, and there never can be, 
that I would not willingly consent to." — Speech of State Senator Clark, of Wiscon- 
son, March, 1862. J 

" History will relate that we (the North) manufactured the conflict, forced it to 
hot-bed precocity, nourished and invited it. — Detroit Free Press, April 16, 1862. 

"We tell them (Congress) that a Cromwell will rise in their midst before they 
progress too far, who will bring their heads to the block without delay or mercy." 
— Free Press, March 21. 

" I say to you, my constituents, that, as your representative, I will never vote one 
dollar, one man, or one srun to the administration of Abraham Lincoln to make war 
upon the South." — D. W. Voorhecs, M. C, Seventh District, Indiana, April, ISol. 

"The Democracy will yet teach Abe' Lincoln and his co-usurpers that the way of 
the transgressors is not easy." — Hon. A. C. Dodge, of Iowa. 

"This is a damned abolition war. We believe Abe Lincoln is as much of a traitor 
as Jeff. Davis." — Ashland (Ohio) Democratic Union. 

"The President and his cabinet were never worthy of the confidence of the na- 
tion. The Democratic party should never have given its assent to the appeal to the 
sword after the affair ot Fort Sumter." — Detroit Free Press. 

'The Ahsland (Ohio) Union, a Democratic organ, speaking of our soldiers, calls 
them hired Hessians going to the sunny Southern soil to butcher by wholesale, not 
foreigners but good men, as exemplary christians as any of our men.' 

"The Crawford County Forum, referring to our soldiers, says: 
'It (the Administration) has put arms in the hands of outlaws, thieves, murder- 
ers, and traitors.,' 

"The Democratic Pi-ess, Taylorsville, 111., speaking of the Republican party and 
the army, says : 

" In power less than a year it has spent millions of the people's money, and five 
hundred thousand men are employed to steal negroes from their Southesn mas- 
ters." 

"If the North and South are ever re-united, we predict it will be when the Con- 
federate^States North shall adopt their new constitution,' (of Jeff. Davis,) or some- 



thing very near like it. There's a good time coming, boys." — Van Suren County 
Press, at Paw Taw, Michigan. 

" Why this expenditure of an : ■ loo \ and treasure in a hopeless enterprise— why 
blame men for being traitors. We cannot see why."— ^Detroit Free Press. 

'There, sir, is the damnable aboliiiouist who administers the Government The 
people ought to rise up mid by physical force, hurl him from the chair of the Gov- 
ernment. "In the eyes of God aud'men, the people would be justified. They should 
do it; and I will go with them."— Judge P.raU's Soeechin the Michigan Legislature, 
Feb. 12, 1863. 

" Geo. W. Peck, of Ohio, in a speech before the Lansing Democratic Association, 
March 1863, said : 

"You Black Republicans began this war. You have carried it on for two years. 
You have sent your hell hounds down South to devastate the country,— and what 
hare you done? You have net conquered the South. You never can conquer 
them. And why ? Eecause they are our brethren." 

"John H. George, N. IL, Democratic nominee for Congress, declared: 

" I won't do anything to sustain the President, Congress or any of the piratical 
etiJW that have control of this Government. I won't do anything that can, in any • 
way, be interpreted as supporting this war." 

Mr. Charles Reeves was the leading member of the convention 
in aid of the conspirators, recently held in the ninth congres- 
sional district of Indiana, to select a candidate to ran against 
Schuyler Colfax. On that occasion he delivered himself of a vio- 
let speech, advocating unconditional peace and reconstruction, 
condemning the Administration. He said that if the election 
was carried by fraud he should advocate immediate rebellion. 
He also advocated the doctrine of State Rights as enunciated by* 
his Southern brethren, and advised an alliance, offensive and de- 
fensive, with the South. He said the idea of putting down the 
rebellion had long since become impracticable, and advised the 
delegates to frown down all attempts to raise soldiers or men to 
prosecute this infernal war. He was loudly applauded. 

At the convention which nominated the State ticket in Indiana 
D. H. Colerick, a prominent member from Allen county, said : 

" Nine hundred and ninety-nine men of every thousand whom I represent, breathe 
no other prayer than to have an end of this hellish war. When news of our v : ,<'o- 
<mes there is no rejoicing. When news of our defeat comes there is no sorrow. 
There is a feeling which tells of an intense desire for peace, and we ask that i 
resolution be passed Ijhat is in union with the prayers of the heart of the Democracy 
of the country, that this horrible and bloody. war must cease." 

That the Southern portion of the conspirators fully appreciate 
the services of their Northern co-laborers is shown in the follow- 
ing article, copied from the Atlanta (Ga.) Register, of recent 
date ; 

"Ex-President Pierce, Seymour, of Connecticut, Vallandigham, Reed, Wood, Rich- 
ardson, and hundreds of others, are as hostile to the war as they are to black repub- 
licanism. These men are doing us an indirect service. They are not openly and 
Avowedly our friends, nor could we reasonably ask this of them. But they ar< 
our bloody enemies. United against Mr. Lincoln and his wicked policy, brea 
the power of an overwhelming majority, firm to the traditions and precedents of 
-onsfitutional liberty, the noble band of patriots is striving to erect a breakwaf r 
chat shall arrest the surges of the unloosed deluge. If they did no more Ahan re- 



8 

8!Bt the centralization of Mr. Lincoln, that far they are worthy of our respect ana 
sympathy. If they hold up the banner of State rights, that far they are advocating 
a sentiment entitled to our admiration. 

"Such is the course they are pursuing, and such a course ought to have our cor- 
'lift! approbation. Step by step the same convictions and the same temper that hav ■:■ 
braced them in compact unity and fiery valor to denounce ultra Federalism and New- 
England fanaticism, will inevitably bring them upon the right ground as it respects 
our independence. We confess our faith in their political principles We confess 
our confidence that eventually these men will see the whole truth and embrace all 
its conclusions. 

" We can gain nothing by denouncing them. We may lose much by presenting 
a h stile front to their peace movements. Live with them under the same govern- 
ment we never will. But, meanwhile, if they will use the ballot-box against Mr. Lin 
cutri, while we use the cartridge box, each side will be a helper to the other, and both 
co-operate to accomplish the greatest work which this country and the continent hay? 
witnessed." 

, The Kegister is right. The men in Indiana and elsewhere in 
the North, banded together, by secret oaths, to aid the conspira- 
tors in the overthrow of the Government, deserve, and ought to 
receive, the " cordial approbation " of their Southern friends. 

The expectation of the conspirators to enlist the whole Demo- 
cratic party x>f the North in their treasonable scheme will fail. 
Thousands and tens of thousands have already denounced them, 
and other tens of thousands will do it as the infamous nature of 
those schemes become fully known. Their love of country will 
not yield to the party behests of assumed leaders. 

As the election approaches, in the vain hope of securing a few 
votes, the leaders of the Northern portion of the conspiracy arc- 
beginning to praise the soldiers while the} r denounce the war I 
This hypocracy will not avail them. Our soldiers are as well in- 
formed as those attempting to deceive them. ' They know that 
these very men have denounced them as " Lincoln's hirelings," 
as "hell hounds," hired to cut the throats of the Christian gen- 
tlemen of the South who are only indulging in the innocent 
amusement of destroying the Government ! 

They know that, in our State, when a proposition was made in 
the Legislature to secure the right of soldiers in the field to vote 
it was opposed by some of these now pretended friends. 

It is true, as an electioneering trick, the conspirators on the 
S<"ate ticket, understanding that Governor Morton had asked for 
the return of the soldiers so as to recruit and vote, very magnan- 
imously, proposed to join him in doing that which he had already 
done! The object is too apparent to deceive ! 

If this is an infernal war on the part of the Union army, as 
they charge, how can they expect the vote of those engaged in 
that war? The war cannot be denounced without, at the same 
time, denouncing those engaged in it. No sophistry, no decla- 



9 

mation, no yelling about abolitionism, can blind the eyes of sen- 
sible men tp any other conclusion. 

From the commencement of the rebellion to the present time 
the acts of cruelty and barbarity perpetrated by the rebels are 
more horrible than have ever occurred in any age of the world. 
The barbarity of Indian warfare bears no comparison to it. 

A rebel. Colonel Eastman, has written a book, entitled " First 
year of the War/' In that book he says : 

" Like a thunderbolt, Kirby Smith fell upon the foe ; our men fought desperate, 
and in a moment the Federal troops, who had felt certain of victory, were every- 
where driven back. Scarcely had they commenced retiring when it became im- 
possible to restrain our troops. A giant Texan, throwing away his rifle, took out 
his bowie-knife, with one blow he split the skull of a wounded man who had fallen 
to the ground, and this began the signal for a general butchery. Like wild beasts 
the incensed soldiery fell upon their victims, hewing, stabbing, slashing like mad 
men! 

" A fearful panic seizes upon the Federal troops. Even the bravest fly before 
such an onslaught — they give way, and, in mortal fear, officers and men run for 
their lives like startled deer. * * The saraare spirit of our 

soldiers now almost bordered on the Horrible. Beauregard took advantage of this 
vengeful mood ; he ordered his whole army forward, and witli wild exultant cheers 
fell upon the broken enemy. Stuart had collected all his cavalry together and 
swept across the plain like a whirlwind, clearing everything before him. 

"The enemy was now at full flight at every point, and so quick was our advance 
that all order in our ranks was lost. A rumor suddenly spread that Kirby Smith 
had fallen. A cry of anger and horror passed through, the ranks of the whole 
army. Our troops, now maddened with r:ige, fell mercilessly upon their opponents 
and a fearful massacre commenced. Scenes of horrible cruelty too fearful for de- 
scription ensued. Our men were no longer human beings; covered with blood, 
and dust, and gunpowder, they fell upon their flying opponents with ungovernable 
fury!" 

The butchery thus described by a rebel witness was followed 
by acts still more fiendish, rivaling the Scandinavians of a barbar- 
ous age, who, it is said, drank wine from the skulls of their 
slaughtered foe. The skulls of many a patriot, who had given his 
life to his' country, were thus used by the rebels at their drunken 
carousel in commemoration of their achievements at the first 
Bull Bun battle. 

If their treatment of the dead be such as to receive the exe- 
cration of mankmd, what can be said of the horrible cruelty in- 
flicted upon the living when in their power. The fortunes of 
war gave them a number of prisoners at Fort Pillow. Hundreds 
of these men, wounded and helpless, were butchered in cold 
blood — many of them on the day subsequent to the fight. 

Any man in the rebel States daring to avow himself in favor of 
the Government of the United States is butchered by the " Peace 
Democrats " of that region. 

In Randolph county, Alabama, recently, a Union man was 



dragged from his house by the " peace Democracy " and taken 
to a thicket: 

" After consultation it was determined to put Mm in the tory's yoke, but, first of 
ail, to try to make him acknowledge to having done and said certain things of which 
he was innocent. 

"After trying some time to accomplish their object, by questioning and threaten- 
ing, they resorted to more severe measures. Untying him, the}' took oif his cloth- 
ing, laid him down upon a log, lashed him firmly to it, and with large hickory 
sticks commenced lacerating him. Four let in on him at once, and the numbers 
soon increased to six. They continued to beat him there for a long time, pausing 
occasionally and asking him if he would confess, and upon his refusing would let in 
on him more vigorously. 

" The blood trickled from. his back in si .reams. His piteous appeals in behalf of 
mercy were totally disregarded. Nature finally 3 ielded, and the poor man swoon* 1 
and was lost to conciousness for several minutes. As soon as he revived these hell- 
i >h tormentors resumed their tortures. They split the ends of green sticks and twist- 
ing them in his hair and pulling violently, caused the most excruciating pain. This 
and other fiendish operations were continued for some time. They then cut off his 
fingers at the second joint, as also his ears close up to his head. 

" The next step was to cut off his arms at the elbows, and the legs at the knees. 
After this operation the wretched victim fainted, and failing to recover for several 
minutes the murderers pronounced him dead and began to prepare to leave, but at 
this moment their victim showed signs of life. They now tied a rope around his 
neck, and hung him to a limb near by, and instantly decamped." 

Who that has read of the horrors of the Spanish Inquisition — 
the rack, and the other modes of punishment there adopted — 
without a feeling of utter detestation for its founders? 

The cruelties inflicted on the soldiers of the Republic at Libby 
Prison and Belle Island, are more horrible than those perpetrated 
in the secret cells of the great engine of hell, as the Inquisition 
has been called. 

A history of those horrors would fill volumes ; bat we can only 
now glance at them. 

Andrew J. Munn, of Company A, in the 100th Ohio Regiment, 
thus speaks of facts occurring under his own observation tit Belle 
Island : 

"The next morning we were parcelled and sent to that hell on eirth, Belle Island 
where I witnessed sights of suffering for months that were horrible — awful — posi- 
tively indescribable, and chill the biood and tend the heart with an agony of pity 
to remember. Day after day I have been forced to witness the slow, fearful death 
bv starvation, of scores of our noble fellows, and to hear their agonizing moans ,u. 1 
incoherent raving-*, and pleading for something to soothe the pains of hunger. They 
would sometimes, when in this half-crazed condition; ask for something to save their 
lives, which they could feel slipping away. Aud their brutal jailor would drag thei l 
from their suffering couches, declaring that they would show them how to address 
gentlemen, and, despite their weak and emaciated condition, buck and gag the poor 
fellows, and force them to lie for hours beneath the scorching rays of the sun, .>. I 
many, -times when they went .to release the sufferers they would find a stiffened 
corpse, with the sunken eyes glazed in death, their fiendish treatment having snapped 
the frail thread of life, and the poor victim being at last beyond the reanh of their 
persecution. 

"One poor fellow, being reduced by starvation and ill-usage to a mere skeleton, 
and could scarcely stand, crawled one day up on a bank near his tent to get a little 
fresh air, his face burning with fever ; but no sooner had he gained the summit of 
the bank and sat down trembling with extreme exhaustion that the exertion had 



11 

cost him, when 'the sentinel leaped upon the bank and harshly ordered him to get 
down or he would shoot him. The poor boy staggered to his feet at once, knowing 
full well what would be the consequence of hesitation, and attemptad to get out of 
sight ; but before lie could turn round the rebel demon raised his gnu ami tired, the 
ball passing through the poor boy's side, who rolled down the bank and expired 
without a groan, his heart's blood spirting in jets from 

"Another time a lot of our boys were crowded in a close, narrow, and filthy cell, 
scarce ten feet wide, with but one small, grated window for light and air, and some 
being sick were obliged to lie down, and, in consequence, the men were huddled and 
the air foul and oppressive; and one young fellow, who was almost Buffo< ated, arose 
and put his face up to the window to get breath, when the guard upon the outside, 
without the slightest provocation, shot him through the head, his blood and brains 
bespattering his comrades inside of the cell, who, with a low, thrilling cry of hor- 
ror, contemplated this brutal and cold-blooded murder of their unfortunate comrade 
without the power of even a remonstrance, for fear of sharing a like fate." 

The testimony taken before the Committee on the Conduct of 
the War is of similar character. The surgeon who had charge of 
many returned prisoners at Baltimore thus speaks of them : 

" Wett's Buildings Hospital, 

"Baltimore, Md , May 24. 1So4. 
"Peat. Sir: I have the honor to enclose the photograph of John Breinig, with 
the desired information written upon it. 1 am very sorry your committee could not 
have seen these cases when first received. No one, from these pictures, can form a 
true estimate of their condition then. Not one in ten was able to stand alone; some 
of them so covered and eaten by vermin that they nearly resembled eases of small 
pox, and so emaciated that they were really livifig skeletons, and hardly that, as 
the result shows, forty out of one hundred and four having died up to this date. 

" If there has been anything so horrible, so fiendish, a? this wholesale starvation, 
in the history of this safnnic rebellion,, I have failed to note it Better the massa- 
cres at , Fort Tillow, and Plymouth than to be thus starved to death by 
through long and weary months. I wish I possessed the power to compel 
all the northern sympathizers with this rebellion to come in and look upon the work 
of the cHivalrous sons of the hospitable and sunny South when thise skeletons were 
first received here. A rebel colonel, a prisoner here, who stood with sad face look- 
ing on as the} 7 were received, finally shook his head and walked away, apparently 
ashamed that he held any relations to men who could be guilty of such deeds. 
" Vera- respectfully, your obedient servant 

9 " "A. CHAPEL. 

" Hon. B. F. Wade, 

Chairnian of Committee on the Conduct of the War." 

Photographs were taken of a few of these victims of the hu- 
mane treatment by our innocent SotdJicrn brethren, and printed 
in the report of the committee. A portion of these are here pre- 
sented. Look at them on the last page, and remember that the 
perpetrators of these damnable cruelties are the "Peace Dem- 
ocrats" of the South, whom Jo. McDonnald, Dan Yoorhees, and 
Vallandigham are so anxious to hug to their affectionate bosoms, 
and the fathers and brothers of those who have suffered by star- 
vation and death are called upon to elect such men to office. 

These men say they want peace, and, to accomplish it, they 
are willing to let their co-conspirators prescribe the terms. 

The only conditions yet offered them are the following, pub- 
lished in the Richmond Examiner of the 16th of last October. 
Read them : 



12 

"Save on our own terms, we can accept no peace whatever, and must fight till 
doomsday rather than yield one iota of them ; and our terms are: 

" Recognition by the enemy of the Confederate States. 

"Withdrawal of the Yankee forces from every foot of Confederate ground, in- 
cluding Kentucky and Missouri. 

'•Withdrawal of Yankee soldiers from Maryland until that State shall decide, by 
a free vote, whether she shall remain in the old Union or ask admission into the 
Confederacy. 

" Consent on the part of the Federal Government to give up to the Confederacy 
its proportion of the Navy as it stood at the time of the secession, or pay for the 

same. 

"Yielding up all pretensions on the part of the Federal Government to that por- 
tion of the old Territories which lies west of the Confederate States. 

"An equitable settlenunt. on the basis of our absolute independence and equal 
rights, of all accounts of the PuDlic Debt and Public Lands, and the advantages ac- 
cruing from foreign treaties. 

" These provisions, we apprehend, comprise the minimum of what we must require 
before we lay down our arms. That is to sa}-, the North must yield all; we, no- 
thing. The whole pretension of that country to prevent by force the separation of 
the States must be abandoned, which will be an equivalent to an avowal that our 
enemies were wroYig from the first; and, of course, as thev waged a causeless and 
wicked war upon us, they ought, in strict juslice, to be required, according to usage 
in such cases, to reimburse to us the whole of our expenses and losses in the course 
of that war." 

These are the terms of peace: and the Enquirer says further: 

"As surely as we completely ruin their ai nies — and without that is no peace nor 
truce at all — so surely shall we make them pay our war debt, though wc wring it out of 
their hearts.' 7 

Are the people of Indiana willing to get down into the dirt 
and accept such terms ! 

These men cry "peace, peace." If they want peace why not 
say to their co-conspiritors, "you made the war and you can 
make peace. Disband your armies — go to your homes — obey the 
laws — maintain the union of all the States and their authority, 
and you can have peace." Why do they not do so? 

No man more earnestly desires peace than he whose sworn 
duty it is to make every possible effort to maintain the Union ; 
but he wants that peace which can only be secured and perpetu- 
ated by the overthrow of the rebellion and return of the people 
to their allegiance to the Government. This, under God, and by 
the assistance of the loyal portion of the people, he will accom- 
plish. 

In the last speech made by Judge Douglas on the rebellion, he 
said: 

" The conspiracy is known. Armies have been raised, war is levied to accom- 
plish it. There are are only two sides to the question. Every man must be for the 
United States or against it. Their can be no neutrals in this war, only patriots and 
traitors." 

Judge Douglas was right. That is the only issue ; all others 
arc raised to deceive the people. Let no man, by his act, sub- 



13 

ject himself to be pointed at in after times as a traitor to his 
country ; nor let him do anything, in this dread hour, which shall 
cause his children to blush for shame. when he shall have left the 
land of the living. 

The rebellion in favor of extending and perpetuating slavery, 
brought the continuance of that institution directly in issue. To 
aid in putting the rebellion down it was determined to liberate 
the slaves, as far as possible, and to use them in our armies. 
Availing themselves of the existing prejudice against the negro, 
the northern aiders and abetors of the rebellion have proclaimed 
that the only object, of the war is to place the negro upon a social 
equality with the whites ! 

The only answer to which such trash is entitled is, to give the 
leaders of the "peace Democracy " assurances that no law shall be 
enacted to prevent their associating with negroes on as perfect 
equality as they may desire, provided the consent of the negroes 
themselves be first obtained ! 

It may be that Providence has permitted the rebellion for the 
purpose of forever settling the slavery question. It may be that 
the prayers of the slaves for deliverance, which have ascended 
to God for two hundred years, have been heard at last ; and it may 
be, that, in His Divine Wisdom, the present is the time selected 
for the last shackle to be wrested from the lacerated limbs of hu- 
manity ; and if so, who will not joyfully exclaim, " Let God's will 
be done ! " 

In its consummation behold the grand and glorious spectacle ! 
Instead of a government founded on the sighs and groans of men 
and women, as contemplated in the establishment of the southern 
confederacy, we shall have a free and united Republic, whose 
happiness and prosperity, and all the elements of greatness shall 
be far greater than ever before known in history. 

No other man than he who now fills the Executive Chair of 
the nation ever had so great a responsibility resting upon him. 
Called to his position by the suffrages of the people, he dare not 
shrink from the performance of his duty. That amid all the cares 
and terrible anxieties of his position, he has honestly and faith- 
fully endeavored to perform that duty none can reasonably doubt. 
That he has always done what subsequent events have shown to 
be the wisest thing to be done, no one pretends. It is not given 
to man to see into futurity, nor to any one an infaliable judgment ; 
and yet, when the pen of impartial history shall record the events 
of the present time, all honor will be awarded to the man who 



14 

Las so faithfully stood by his country in her hour of greatest peril, 
and against whose sagacity and statesmanship so little can be 
justly said. 

The life of that country depends on his re-election. Defeated, 
and an ignominious peace will surely follow. The constitution 
of the slave confederacy will be adopted by all the States, and 
this continent will become a vast slave empire, to be ruled over 
by the most hated aristocracy that ever cursed mankind. 

Are the people prepared for such an ending to the present 
struggle? Is it for this that they have been pouring out then- 
life's blood for the last three years ? Are they willing now to 
bow their necks in abject submission to the yoke of those who 
have beer, murdering their neighbors, friends and sons, in cold 
blood, or starving them to death in infernal prisons? 

If not, then go to the polls in October, as preparatory for the 
Presidential conflict in November, and sustain those who are up- 
holding the Government, and all will be well. The Republic 
will live and go on increasing in prosperity and happiness from 
age to age. 




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THE CONSTITUTION UPHELD AND MAINTAINED. 



SPEECH 



HON. JAS. HARLAN, 



i 

THE UNITED STATES SENATE. 



In this country every patriot reverences the Constitution and the laws. Every 
wanton violation of either stirs his indignation. As in Rome the voice of the 
people was said to be the voice of God, so in this country the law is our only 
soveieign which all, from the President to the humblest among the toiling mil- 
lions, must implicitly obey. Whoever wantonly tramples tbe Constitution and 
the laws under his feet, is properly held to be an enemy of the people, and at 
war with their dearest interest. 

Relying on this reveience for the law of the land, the rebels of the South and 
their allies in the North, have sought to justify their treason, and secure a 
diversion in favor of their wicked purposes, by denouncing the President as a 
usurper and tyrant, and his administration as unconstitutional. So persistently 
have they pursued this course, as to convince many honest and patriotic citi- 
zens of its truth. So that many of the President's warmest admirers, and con- 
sistent and ardent friends of the Union, justify these supposed violations of the 
Constitution on the ground of ''military necessity," and the duty of the Presi- 
dent to preserve the Government. Nor will I dispute the potency of this de- 
fense of what would otherwise be the unlawful act of a nation or an individual. 
For the right to self-preservation is the first law of nations as well as of nature. 
This principle underlies every national code, and every system of legal casuistry. 
None are so foolish as to insist that a nation may not disregard its own laws to 
avoid destruction ; and none except rebels steeped in crime could desire our 
Government to tamely submit to annihilation. 

But having carefully observed the administration of public affairs by Presi- 
dent Lincoln, and as carefully examined the charges of unconstitutionality pre- 
ferred against it, I fearlessly pronounce them groundless. 

Let us examine for a few minutes some of the gravest of these charges. 

CALL FOE MILITIA. 

1. The rebels South and North denounce the first belligerent act of Presi- 
dent Lincoln — his call for some seventy-five thousand militia — as unconstitu- 
tional and tyranical. 



.4- 

it n 






And 3^et the Constitution provides in so many words that Congress shall 
have power 

" To provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the Union, suppress 
insurrection, and repel invasion." (Art 1, Sec. 8.) 

And Congress had, under this provision of the Constitution, many years before 
provided by law for the use of the militia by the President, whenever it might 
become necessary for the purposes named. And the necessity had arisen; a 
gigantic insurrection existed; it had made open and flagrant actual war on the 
Government both by laad and sea. And the President in pursuance of his oath 
to execute the laws, made the call for troops to assist him. 

THE CONSCRIPTION. 

2. The Copperheads denounce the President for the "conscription 1 '' or "draft" 
of soldiers to Jill up the depleted0anks of our armies. 

And yet none will seriously deny that all able bodied male citizens, owe their 
services to the republic when needed for its defense, or to aid in the enforcement 
of its laws ; and that if they do not voluntarily spring to arms when the neces- 
sity arises, they may be compelled to serve; and that without the right to 
coerce the services of its citizens to aid in the common defense, and to enforce 
the laws, all civil government would prove a total failure. Hence sheriffs, and 
constables, and maishalls, iu every State in the Union, when resisted in the 
execution of process, are authorized by law to call '.* by-standcis," all in their 
reach, for assistance, and it is declared to be a crime to refuse the lequisite aid. 
So it is now, and ever has been, and must ever continue to be when the natknal 
authorities are resisted by iuternal or external foes. The proper <. flicers must 
have the right to require the aid of all the people, or abandon tue Government- 
But if the services of all are uot needed in any given c«8e, there is ho fairer 
mode of making the selection of the requisite number than by "casting lots," 
whicn is but another name for " Draft" or * Conscription." 

And all know that the President did not commence- raising troops in this 
mode until Congress enacted 1; ws rsquiiiug it to be done. That Congress had 
the power to enact those laws none can dispute. For the Constitution provides 
that Congress shall have power 

"To raise and support armies." (Const, Art. 1, Sec. 8.) 

The power, therefore, is plenary — it is without rest: iction ; the mode of rais- 
ing them, the material, pay, government, leugth of service, character, age, color, 
and nationality, are all left to the discretion of Congress. And Congress directed 
that the President should call for volunteers, and if the quotas of the several 
States were uot thus filled, he should select the residue from the people of the 
delinquent States by lot or draft. Hence, the President, so far from violating 
the Constitution in causing men to be drafted, h; s simply obeyed the law. 
And the law is in accordance with the plainest and most explicit provisions o.' 
the Constitution. 

ARMING NEGROES. 

3. They denounce the President for violating the Constitution in arming 
negroes. 

And yet all know that he did not do so until Congress had enacted a law 
requiring this to be done. And the power of Congress to pass such a law will 
hardly be questioned after reading the cause of the Constitution above cited, 
which declares that " Congress shall have power to raise and support armies." 
Here is no limitation. The troops raised may be black or white, red or yellow, 



and of any nationality; they may be natives or foreigners, minors or adults, 
slaves or owners, apprentices or masters; and solar as the question of power is 
concerned, may be required to serve with or without pay. Nor is this a new 
policy. Colored troops were employed in this country during the revolutionary 
^ar and the war of 1812 — and have been, and are still, used by every natiou 
on earth controlling colored citizens or subjects. If authorities were wanting 
to prove this, they might be piled up by the vo'ume. 

But I will only mentou in pissing that Senator Johnson, once Attorney 
General of the Uuited Spates, a gentleman of great 1-^al learning, and hereto- 
fore not a friend of this Administration — who has neglected no opportunity to 
reprimand it lor every supposed weakness, error, or oversight, said in a speech 
on the floor of the Senate at its last session — 

"Mr. President, a word or two more on this subject before I leave it. I have had oc 
casion more than once during the session to say (and that opinion I confidently entertain) 
that although by the laws of the States Africans are made property, they are also under 
the Constitution of the United States, with reference to the war power of the Govern- 
ment, to be considered as persons, and may be used as persons and brought into the field 
to maintain the authority of the Government to which as persons they owe allegiance. 
If this opinion be sound, if they are persons subject to our military control, if they are 
persons increasing our military power, they are for the same reasons persons under the 
military control of the rebels, and may increase their military power, and as such it is as 
much the right of the United States to take them from the rebels or to use them against 
the rebels, as it is to take from and use against the rebels anything else that may be used 
by the rebels against the United States. — {Cong. Globe. 

FREEDOM OF SPEECH AND OF THE PRESS. 

4th. The President is accused of having interfered with the freedom of speech 
■omd of the press. 

Tbere is a difference between freedom and licentiousness. The liberty of all 
to acquire property does not include the right to steal and rob. Freedom of loco- 
motion does not include the right to trespass on another's premises. Freedom 
to love, and to be loted, does not include the right to disturb your neighbor's 
■domestic happiness. So "freedom of the press" does not include the right to 
print and circulate counterfeit bank notes ; nor freedom of speech, the right to 
slander your neighbor, or " to give aid and comfort " to the public enemy in 
time of war. And if any one, under the pretense of a right to freedom of speech 
or of the press, commits treason, he may and ought to be restrained and pun- 
ished. To pretend the contrary, would indicate extreme mental obtuseness or 
unpardonable and criminal wickedness. 

If the President has in any case suppressel a newspaper, or arrested any one 
for words spoken, in which the parties were not intentionally and ostentatiously 
encouraging the rebels to continue the war, and stimulating their northern sym- 
pathizers to obstruct and embarrass the Government in its efforts to suppress 
the rebellion, it has never come to my knowledge. But whether he has or has 
not esred in any given case, in relation to the guilt or innocence of the party, is 
not the real question. All admit that his intentions are pure. The real ques- 
tion is one of constitutional right to prevent publishers of newspspers and stump 
speakers from committing treason — from giving aid and comfort to the public 
enemy. 

And the right to suppress a newspaper used in the interest of treason is as 
clear and indisputable as the right to take a dagger from the hand of the assas- 
sin, tools from the counterfeiter, or muskets from the hands of the rebels. The 
freedom of speech and of the press is not more explicitly guarantied by the 
Constitution than " the right to bear arms." 

But before leaving the subject, I propose, to prove, from the official record, 



that the Copperheads themselves do not believe their own statements on this 
subject. 

Immediately preceding the last presidential election, Jefferson Davis offered 
for the consideration of the Senate, a series of resolutions declaratory of the 
principles -which should contiol in the administration of the affairs of the Na- 
tional Government. When the second resolution of the series, which made a 
covert attack on the freedom of discussion, was under consideration, I offered 
the following as an amendment: 

"But the free discussion of the morality and expediency of slavery should never be 
interfered with by the laws of any State or of the United States ; and the freedom of 
speech and of the press, on this and every other subject of domestic and national policy, 
should be maintained inviolate in all the States." 

The question being taken on this amendment, by yeas and nays, resulted 
yeas 20, nays 36 — every Democratic Senator voting in the negative, including 
Bright, of Indiana, Gwinn and Latham, of California, Lane, of Oregon, Pug'b, 
of Ohio, and Thompson, of New Jersey, all representing northern States, and 
all from border slave States, as well as those fiom the extreme South. — (Cong. 
Globe, 1st session, 36th Congress, pages 1937-2321.) 

On the 8th of April last, when Senator Powell, of Kentucky, was denouncing 
the President for interfering with what he styled " freedom of speech," I called 
his attention to the foregoing, reminding him that he and all his Democratic 
associates in the Senate voted against free speech. He replied that the scope of 
the amendment would have been to send persons clown South to preach insur- 
rection to their slaves. " I would vote nay again on that resolution. I voted 
right." — (Cong. Globe, 1st session, 38th Congress, page 1487.) That is, ac- 
cording to his admission, " the freedom of speech and of the press" may be 
suppressed to prevent the insurrection of negroes and to preserve slavery ! Then 
may not its licentiousness be restrained to suppress the rebellion or white men, 
and to preserve the Governttient. 

CONFISCATION. 

5th. The Copperheads denounce the administration for the confiscation of the 
property of rebels and the liberation of their slaves. 

And yet the Constitution says : 
"The Congress shall have power to declare the punishment of treason." — (Art. See. 8.) 

And Congress, in pursuance of this provision provided by law, that uuless 
these traitois should lay clown their arms and return to their allegiance within 
a time to be fixed by the President, they should be punished by the confiscation 
of all their property, including slaves. 

And why should they not be thus punished ? Heretofore the punishment of 
treason was death. This is the usual penalty for this offence in every civilized 
country on earth. It you may hang fur treason why may you not inflict a less 
punishment — the loss of property ? And if you may proscribe the loss of prop- 
erty as the punishment of treason, why may you not include slave property ? 
Is property in slaves any more sacred than property in cattle and lands? The 

f>ower conferred by the Constitution is plenary. They may declare it to be the 
oss of lands, cattle, mules, horses, negroes, or franchises, such as the right to 
vote, hold office, or bear arms. There is no limitation whatever except that, the 
punishment deelared shall not be inflicted on the children of the traitor. You 
shall not deprive the child of the right to vote, hold office, bear arms, or to ac- 
quire property on account of the parents treason. 

EMANCIPATION PEOCLAMATION. 

6th. The President is denounced for issuing a proclamation liberating the 
slaves of rebels within the rebellious districts. 



And pray why not? We have just seen that " Congress may declare the 
punishment of treason :" that in pursuance of this provision of the Constitution, 
Congress did declare that all traitors who should not lay down their arms by a 
time to be fixed by the President, should forfeit all their property of " every 
kind," including slave property. The President had taken a solemn oath to take 
care that this and all other "laws should be faithfully executed." Within the 
rebellious districts this confiscation act could not be enforced by the courts. But 
it was believed that if not impeded by the army aud navy, it would to some ex- 
tent execute itself', that many thousands of the slaves if protected would aban- 
don thbir rebel masters. And to secure this result the President issued his 
proclamation, declaring that within the rebel districts, all persons, irrespective 
of their former status, should be considered and treated by the United States 
Government as freemen ; aud requiring the officers of the army and navy to 
recognize their right to maintain their liberty. And if it is admitted to be right 
to punish rebels within our lines by the confiscation of their property, including 
slaves, pray cau it be wrong to do thesame'lhing beyond our lines so far as tne 
effort can be made effective ? 

It is objected, however, that the proclamation if enforced would liberate the 
slaves of Union citizens as well as of rebels. Aud it is clear that the emancipa- 
tion of slaves of Union citizens who had not aided the rebellion could not be 
justified under the fflause of the Constitution authorizing Congress to declare 
the punishment of treason ; aDd to that extent the proclamation would be void, 
unless justified by the public necessities ; and in thatoasa the parties thus losing 
slaves would have the same right to just compensation as if other property had been 
taken for a similar purpose. And this would be a question for the courts to adju- 
dicate when the supremaoy of the Constitution and laws shall have been restored. 

SUSPENSION OF THE WRIT OF HABEAS CORPUS. 

7th. It is avered that the President violated the Constitution by suspending 
the writ of habeas corpus. 

And yet the Constitution says : 

" The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in 
cases of rebellion or invasion the public safety may require it." — (Coustitution, Art. 1st, 
sec. 9.) 

This is what is styled by lawyers a negative pregnant ; and is equivalent to 
saying that " the priviledge of the writ of habeas corpus may be suspended when 
in cas-es of rebellion or invasion the public safety may require it." And as a 
rebellion does exist, the priviledge of the writ may be properly suspended if the 
public safety requires it. There can be no question of the right to suspend it: 
the only question that can arise is, " who can judge of the necessity ?" On this 
question a large majority of the best legal minds of the country who have ex- 
pressed an opinion on this point, conclude that the President is the proper par- 
ty to excercise this judgment, as he is the Commander-in-Chief of the Armies 
and Navies of the Republic, and is at the same time the chief executive officer 
entrusted with the enforcement of the laws. Others, however, conclude that 
Cougress should decide when the public safety requires its suspension. Hence, 
to silence cavil Congress enacted a law formally directing its suspension during 
the continuance of the rebellion, whenever and wherever the President might 
find it necessary to secure the enforcement of the laws. And this ought to be 
an end of the controversy. 

ARBITRARY ARRESTS. 

8. Th% President is denounced for violating the Constitution by the "arbi- 
trary arrests" of suspected parties and offenders in cases not founded on "in- 



6 

formation " or "indictment," — and for authorizing their imprisonment without 
a trial and conviction by a jury. 

These charges are usually vindictive and malicious, and are in the first in- 
stance uttered for partiz--in effect, — and are doubtless repeated by the shallow 
minded and unreflectiug under the belief that no arbitrary arrest is legal and 
constitutional. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Any citizen has a 
perfect inherent right to arrest a criminal without process and to restrain him 
until process can be secured. And any citizen has a right without process to 
arrest a party to prevent the commission of crime, and t<4 restrain him until the 
danger has passed. This is done every day and eveiy night in the great cities. 
Men are discovered apparently on the point of committing crime, as an assault 
and battery, a burglary, a robbery, or a murder, and are seized and incarcer- 
ated or otherwise restrained of their liberty to prevent the commission of the 
offence. In all such cases, even in times of profound peace, it is idle to insist 
that the arrest must be preceded by a formal '• information "or "indictment," 
or that a "jury trial " must prWede an imprisonment. There would be no 
time for this — the delay would be fatal : instant action is necessary to prevent 
the c ime. Such arrests are therefore not only right — but a refusal to make 
them would be a crime against society. 

The President, when convinced that persons were about to commit treason — 
the gravest ciime known to the laws, has caused their arrest and restraint as iu 
the case of Vallandigham, of Ohio, and Jones, of Iowa, until the danger had 
p issed, when they have been set at liberty. 

I am not here undertaking to justify any specific case of arrest made without 
piocess. Some of them may have been unnecessary, and may have worked 
great personal hardship. The President may not have been correctly informed, 
and may have erred in any given case. He could not be everywhere in per- 
son and must necessarily rely on others for information. All I claim here is 
that he intended to do ri^ht, and that in principle he had a perfect right to 
make arrests without process to prevent the commission of crime. If not, why 
not? We have seen that a private citizen may do this— yea, more, that it is 
his duty to do so — and a wrong akin to a crime to refuse when he has the power. 
May not the President do what a private citizen may do to prevent the com- 
mission of offenses? 

In the case of an arbitrary arrest by a private citizen without process, if the 
restraint were to be protracted, the party could sue out a writ of habeas corpus, 
and secure his discharge by the judge of any court of competent jurisdiction. 
But if made by the President in times of "invasion or insurrection" he could 
if he deemed that the public safety required it, as we have seen suspend the 
privilege of this writ and retain the person in custody. 

If any doubt might otherwise exist on this point it ought to be settled in the 
minds of those who reverence the courts by their decisions in the case of the 
arrest and restraint of Vallandigham by General Burnside. While still in cus- 
tody, application was made to Judge Leavitt, of the United States Court for the 
Southern Distiict of Ohio, for a writ of habeas corpus. Vallandigham was 
fully heard in an able, and exhaustive argumeut, delivered by his personal and 
political friend, ex-Attorney General of Ohio, George E. Pugb, who for six years 
was a representative of the Ohio Democracy in the United States Seuate, and 
Judge Leavitt refused to issue the writ. This was, in effect, deciding that the 
arrest was constitutional ; for no other question could legitimately arise than 
the power of the President to make the arrest without process, and the con- 
stitutionality of the restraiut. in applying for this writ the party must allege 
that he has been illegally arrested and restrained of his liberty, setting forth the 
pretended grounds of restraint, if known. When brought before the court or 
'ml go, according to the principles of the common law, the question of guilt or 



v innocence is never tried. The legality of the restraint is the only question that 
can be put in issue. But the judge or court would not, of course, issue the 
writ and bring the party before the court for a bearing unless, according to his" 
own showing, his arrest was illegal. As Judge Leavitt refused the writ, it is, 
in effect, an affirmation of the legality of' tbe restraint. Nor can this decision 
be justly attributed to political bias. For this judge was appointed by Presi- 
dent Jackson, many years before the existence of the Republican party, and 
he has never been accused or suspected duriug his long official career of the 
siighest divergence from the line of judicial rectitude. 

An appeal was, however, taken in the Vallandigham case to tbe Supreme 
Court of the United States, in an application Tor a writ of certiorari, or an or- 
der on the Judge Advocate General to' send the case to the Supreme Court for 
re-hearing. This application was refused after a full hearing in open court. 
In other words, the decision of Judge Leavitt was sustaiued by the Supreme 
Court; and the question practically settled by the court of the last resort, that 
during a rebellion or invasion the Presidenfonay legally arrest suspected per- 
sons without process, and when in his opinion the public safety requires it, may 
suspend the right to the use of the writ of habeas corpus, and retain them in 
custody until the danger has passed. This right is therefore affimed by every 
department of the Government, by Congress, by the President, and by the 
Court*. And finally the Copperhead National Convention at Chicago has stul- 
tified all that Copperhead senators, and members, and newspapers, and stump 
speakers, have said in denunciation of "arbitrary arrests," by the nomination 
of Major General McClellan for the Presidency, after his "arbitrary arrest" of 
the members of the Maryland legislature. 

TPJAL OF ACCUSED. 

9th. But, it is demanded, " why are not these parties put on trial ?" " Ad- 
mitting the necessity and legality of the arrests and testraint, surely they have a 
right to trial by a jury of their countrymen, and to be confronted with the 
witnesses who testily against them." 

This is more spacious than sound. In the class of arrests made to prevent 
the commission of erime, hdfcv would it be possible to put the parties on trial? 
How could you try a party for an offence not committed? The utmost that 
•could be demanded would be the release of the suspected parties, on giving 
bond and satisfactory security to keep the peace. And this has been done in 
every case where, in the opinion of the President, it was oompatable with the 
public safety. But putting a party under bonds is but another mode of restraint 
substituted for imprisonment. It is the same in principle. The right to do the 
former involves the right to do the latter. 

In cases of arrest, after the commission of the crime, what authority has the 
President to try, condemn, and punish the offenders? The Constitution says: 

"No person shall be held to answer for a capital or otherwise infamous crime, unless 
on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in cases arising in the land or 
naval forces, or in the militia, when in actual service in time of war or public daDger." — 
(Article 5, Amendments to the Constitution.) 

Hence, the President and all his Cabinet, the Congress, aud all the Courts 
combined, have not the constitutional power to put a man on trial for an alleged 
crime, except in the nature of a preliminary examination for the purpose of 
eliciting facts to justify restraiut of the suspected party. This can be done only 
by a grand jury. The President has the constitutional right to arrest and re- 
strain during the continuance of the rebellion any offender, or person about to 
commit a crime, so long as the public safety may require it. To deny this 
right is to deuy the validity of the Constitution. But he has no right to try in 



8 

the judicial sense, or to convict, condemn, or punish any one ; this is the pro- 
vince of the jury, the court, and the sheriff. Nor has the President put on 
trial, in the judicial sense, or punished any one not in the land or naval forces. 
When restrained of their liberty by placing them under guard, or within the 
walls of fortifications, the confinement was not in the nature of punishment, nor 
considered or intended to be considered infamous. They would be liable after- 
ward as much as before such restraint to indictment and punishment by the 
civil authorities. 

It follows, therefore, that the President has proceeded as far as he has the 
right under the Constitution, and not one hairs-breadth farther. The " Copper- 
heads condemn bim as a violator of the Constitution for doing what the Con- 
stitution clearly authorizes ; and condem*n him for not doing what the Consti- 
tution as clearly prohibits." 

But it is needless to pursue this subject. All these cavils and charges of un- 
constitutionality are as empty as the wind. They are without a decent pretext. 
They all vanish under a candid, impartial analysis. No one can carefully ex- 
amine them and avoid the conclusion that the measures of the existing Admin- 
istration are in strict accordance with the Constitution and laws. 

I therefore conclude with the declaration that, in my opinion, a more pure- 
minded, disinterested, self-sacrificing, generous, humaue, patriotic, laborious, 
and God-fearing man never administered the affairs of a great nation than 
Abraham Lincoln. And that no living man, whose name has been mentioned 
in that connection, could be more safely trusted in the presidential office for 
the next four years. And that no one more richly deserves the second office 
in the gi;t of the American people than Andrew Johnson, of Tennessee. And 
that if all who believe as I do perform their duty resolutely and faithfully, 
their triumphant election is as certain as the succession of day and night. 



PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN OF 1864. 
UNION CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEE. 

Hon. E. B. WASHBURNE, of Illinois. 
" R. B. VAN VALKENBURG, N. Y. 
" J. A.^ARFIELD, of Ohio. 
" J. G.BLAINE, of Maine. 

House of Representative*. 

E. D. MORGAN, Chairman. JA3. HARLAN, Treasurer. D. N. COOLEY, Sec'y. 



Hon. E. D. MORGAN, of New York. 
" J AS. HARLAN, of Iowa. 
" L. M. MORRILL, of Maine. 
(Senate.) 



Committee Rooms, Washington, D. C-, Sep. 2, 1864. 
Dear Sir: The Union Congressional Committee, in addition to the documents 
already published, propose to issue immediately the following documents for dis- 
tribution among the people : 

1. McClellan's Military Career Reviewed and Exposed. 

2. George H. Pendleton, his Disloyal Record and Antecedents. 

3. The Chicago Copperhead Convention, the men who composed and controlled it. 

4. Base surrender of the Copperheads to the Rebels in arms. 

5. The Military and Naval Situation, and the Glorious Achievements of our Sol- 

diers and Sailors. 

6. A Few Plain Words with the Private Soldier. 

7. What Lincoln's Administration has done. 

8. The History of McClellan's "Arbitrary Arrest" of the Maryland Legislature. 

9. Can the Country Pay the Expenses of the War? 

10. Doctrines of the Copperheads North identical with those of the Rebels South. 

11. The Constitution Upheld and Maintained. 

12. Rebel Terms of Peace. 

13. Peace to be Enduring, must be Conquered. 

14. A History of Cruelties and Atrocities of the Rebellion. 

15. Evidences of a Copperhead Conspiracy in the Northwest. 

Printed by L. Towers for the Union Congressional Committee. 



Ft a- 



I REBEL TERMS OF PEACE. 



VISIT OF REV. DR. JACQUES (COLONEL SEVENTY-THIRD 

REGIMENT ILLINOIS VOLUNTEERS) AND J. R. GILMORE 

(EDMUND KIRKE) AT REBEL CAPITAL. 



WHAT JEFF DAVIS SAID. 

THE NORTH MUST YIELD ALL— THE SOUTH NOTHING '. 



CORRESPONDENCE. 

"Washington City, D. C„ Sept 5, 1864. 
CoL James F. Jaqoks : 

Sin : My attention has been called to two somewhat conflicting narratives of what 
purports to have been an interview between you and Jefferson Davis at the city of 
Richmond, on the suhject of peace. One of these narratives seems to have been 
prepared by a Mr. Gilmore for a popular magazine; the other appears in the news- 
papers over the signature of Judah P. Benjamin, the rebel Secretary of State. The 
people feel a very deep iuterest in the subject named as the occasion of your visit 
to the rebel capital, and are, of coujrse, anxious to have a correct statement of the 
character of the interview and its results, if it did in fact occur, which some deny. 

My long and intimate acquaintance with you, commencing in your boyhood, when 
we were members of the same college class, and our uninterrupted friendship, justi- 
fies me, I think, in requesting you to be good enough to inform me under what 
auspices you made the visit, its object and result; including a statement of any 
suggestions on either side, proposing an armistice or terms of a permanent peace, 
and the responses. 

I am i he more anxious to obtain this information from you, because I cannot doubt 
tbat your high personal character, connected with the various positions of trust ia 
church and state, in civil pursuits as well as in the field, which you have filled with 
so much credit to yourself, and so much satisfaction to the public, will justify all in 
placing implicit confidence in your statements. 

Very respectfully your obedient servant, 

JAMES HARLAN. 



Washington, D. C, Sept. 6, 1864. 
Hon. James Harlan : 

Vert Dear Sir: Your communication to me, of the 5th instant, is received, 1 
have up to this time declined making any report of my recent visit to Richmond 
in the publio prints, for the reason that I believe the time bad not arrived for mob 
statement from me. The facts of the interview with Mr. Davis having been laid be- 
fore the proper authorities at Washington. 

The facts to which you refer, via: "that other parties hare made statements 
omewhat at variance with each other," induces me to change my purpose. 




As to the faet of the trip to Richmond, and the interview with Mr. Davis, it is 
presumed no one can doubt it. As to the motives that prompted and the policy 
that guided me in the prosecution of the mission, I may be permitted to say a word. 

I have been in the army for three years, and have participated in a number of 
the severest and most bloody battles that have been fought during the war. I 
have witnessed the immense slaughter of men, and distruction of property incident 
to such a war. My heart has grown sick at the sight; and I have felt that, under 
God, some effort should be made to stop it if possible. Under a conviction of duty 
to my country, and to my fellow men, I started with my life in one hand, and the 
olive branch of peace in the other to go to our enemies, knowing that my life was at 
their mercy. 

As to results, I believe that good would be accomplished what ever might result 
to me. I had no authority from the Government except permission to go ; this 
was all I wanted. Anything else would have defeated me in my objects. 

As to the danger, poetry or romance connected with the enterprise, I have no de- 
sire to speak. 1 have performed my duty, and am unconcerned as to what judg- 
ment others shall pass upon me or my work. God and the future will provide for 
and take care of that. 

The interview between Mr. Davis and myself was in substance as follows : * * 
• * (see report.) Yours, very truly, 

JAMES P. JAQUES, 
Col. 73d Regiment III. Vols. 



.» 



KEPOKT. 



Most of the reasons for our visit to Richmond having been enumerated by anoth- 
er, and most of the facts and incidents of our journey having been detailed by him 
in a magazine article, I will not repeat them here, but proceed at once to the inter- 
view, which was substantially as follows: 

• I said, " Mr. Davis, I am here in an unofficial capacity. My reason for seeking an 
interview in that capacity is this: I have believed that our troubles when settled, 
and however settled, will be settled by negotiation, and that that negotiation will 
have to be brought about in an unofficial way. I am here in an unofficial capacity, 
in full possession, however, of the policy of the Government of the United States, 
and of the feelings of the people of the North. I come to you as a christian gen- 
tleman, understanding that I am to meet a christian gentleman. I feel that such 
parties can meet and talk over the most delicate matters without harm, and that 
great good may result from such an interview. You have made three unsuccessful 
attempts to open negotiations with the United States. If President Davis of the 
Confederate States of America should appoint a given number of commissioners to 
meet a corresponding number appointed by President Lincoln of the United States, 
President Lincoln would not listen to President Davis, and President Davis would not 
listen to President Lincoln, and if, by chance, your commissioners should get to- 
gether, they would only quarrel, widen the breach, increase our troubles, and go 
home. I have believed that our troubles had to come — not that God had decreed 
them or that they were a part of His plan concerning us, but that we had reached 
a point in the history of the country beyond which it was impossible for us to pass 
and live in peace without learning important lessons. 

In the North, when gentlemen rose in the Congress of the United States, the pro- 
fessed representatives of the southern people, and talked about dividing the coun- 
try, seceding by States, or taking up arms in defence of their rights, we had to 
learn that you meant something. We did not believe that you meant it. We be- 
lieved that you were simply attempting to frighten us into measures. We had to 
learn in the North that there was something there that it was necessary for us to 
look after. In the South you had to learn an important lesson. You had to learn 
fiat one southern man could not whip from four to six northern men. We have met 
in the same school — the school of experience — a dear school ; there is a certain class 
of men that will learn there and nowhere else. We have learned in this school, 
and now, Mr. Davis, I feel that we are prepared to live in peace. We had also 
reached a point in the history of this country, where it was impossible for us to go 
another year without teaching the world an important lesson. We could not send 
our commerce upon every sea, into every port, and bring the products of every 
clime to our coast without exciting the jelaousy of other nations, and it became ab- 
solutely necessary that we should teach them that the American people can't b« 
whipped. Unite us and the world cannot whip us." 

To these remarks Mr. Davis made this reply : "We have done our own fighting 
other nations have not helped you ; they have not helped us." 

"I have felt, Mr. Davis," I continued, "that you misunderstand us at the North in two 
important particulars. First, in reference to the prosecution of this war. Upon 
that subject with us there is but one opinion. There may be two or more candidates 
for the Presidency, but the principal plank in the platform of each of those candi- 
dates will be a vigorous prosecution of the war, and the only point upon which 
we differ is as to which party can do it most successfully. There are other persons 
upon the outskirts who claim to sympathize with your cause, and are long and loud 
in their professions of friendship for you, but they are parties in whose judgment 
and opinions you repose no confidence. 

I represent truly the sentiments and feelings of the masses of the people of the 
North ; and we feel that the question we are called upon to decide is, whether yon 
shall crush the Government of the United States, or we shall crush your 
army ; and you may rely upon it, Mr. Davis, we are not long in deciding as to which 
we shall do. We have reached a point in the history of this war to which I had 
hoped we never should come — the annihilation of one or the other of the parties. 



To talk about annihilating the South or crushing the southern people, makes my 
blood run cold, for I allow no man to sympathize with the southern people more 
deeply than 1 do, and I am here to talk with you because I sympathize with your 
people. 

The question that we feel to be how pressing us, is this: you and I are engaged 
in an individual combat; I consider you the aggressing party; it becomes evident 
that one of us must die. You will take my life if I don't take yours. The laws of 
God and man make it my privilege to take your life to save mine; I had hoped that 
we never should reach this point in the history of the war. and I wish to see if there 
cannot be some plan adopted by which this shedding of blood may be stopped. 

Ano'her point, Mr. Davis, upon which I feel you misunderstand the northen peo- 
ple is this: there is toward the people of the South upon the part of the people 
of the North a feeling of respect and of friendship, and 1 may say of affection, which 
is undying and unyielding ; and if the contest in which we are engaged were ended 
there are millions of dollars in the North that would be poured out immediately to 
feed 3 our people. Those engaged in arms might go to their cotton fields, their 
sugar plantations, their rice farms, and make themselves independently rich in pro- 
ducing those articles before they fall in price, and the northern people will feed 
them while they are doing it. Such is the feeling of thepeople of the North toward 
the people of the South that if this contest were once ended public sentiment would 
justify Mr. Lincoln in issuing a proclamation of universal amnesty, including Jefferson 
Davis and every man in the Confederacy." 

At this point Mr. Davis spoke, and said : " We feel, Colonel, that you have a very 
strange way of showing j^our affection for us in your mode of prosecuting this war 
and in invading our country. You have made a great many enemies in the South. 

We ate not out now, Mr. Davis, 1 responded, making friends, we are engaged in 
putting down rebellion, and when we get through with that, we intend to go to 
work to make friends." 

Again Mr. Davis spoke and said: " Colonel I foresaw the immense river of blood 
which is now flowing ; I labored for twelve years as an honest man in the Congress 
of the United States to prevent it, and if I were, in the presence of my God, to be 
judged this moment, I could say of all the blood that has been shed not one drop of 
it is upon my skirts." He then proceeded tospeak at length upon the subject of State 
Rights, State Sovereignty, the Independence of States, their right to secede, and 
the right of revolution ; to which, however, 1 made no reply except to give him to 
understand that whilst his arguments looked plausible from his own stand point, 
from the position we occupy at the North these things looked very different. I 
did not feel, however, that I was called upon to enter into a discussion with him 
upon those points. He knew the northern view, and knew well that it was defi- 
nitely settled. 

He said further: "To talk about peace upon any other terms than the acknow- 
ledgment of our independence would be to confess that we had made a mistake. 
We have made no mistake, sir; we have committed no blunder; we have only as- 
sumed to do what your Constitution guarantees to you the privilege of doing. The 
Declaration of Independence enuunciates the principle that all governments derive 
their just powers from the consent of the governed ; we are only following out the 
instincts of our nature and assume to do what the God of nature has made it 
our privilege to do — namely, to govern ourselves, and hence there is no rtse of 
talkvg about peace on any other terms than the acknowledgment of our independence. 
You talk about amnesty to Jeff. Davis and all his people. Sir, amnesty or pardon 
applies to the guilty, not to the innocent 1 have committed no wrong ; my people 
have committed no wrong, sir; hence pardon does not apply to us it applies to the 
guilty." 

I then by 6ide issues attempted to get him from the position he had taken, that 
there was no use in talking about peace on any other terms than the acknowledg- 
ment of their independence ; but every effort only caused him to set his stakes 
deeper, and take his position stronger on that point until he reached the ultima- 
tum, " our independence we will have or we will have annihilation." This was the 
great thought that seemed to possess him, to which all he said tended, and which 
he seemed profoundly anxious to impress upon my mind. 

Our interview lasted, I suppose, three hours at least, and in the course of the con- 
versation many things were said that were irrelevant, really, to the subject under 
consideration. 

My friend, Mr. Gilmore, made this proposition : "Suppose we leave this question 
to the people North and South, let Mr. Lincoln be the Union candidate for the 
Presidency, and Mr. Davis the secession candidate, let the people vote North and 



South for those candidates and let their decision be tinal." Mr. Davis replied, " that 
would do so far as your government is concerned ; you cnn roach the will of th& 
majority there; with us we cannot ; our States are soverign and independent in 
themselves; I should have no right to ask them to vote upon such a question; we 
have no means by whicli we can reach the will of the majority on a question of that 
kind." 

I made three attempts to leave. At the first as I rose, I said, " Mr. Davis, after 
closing this interview shall we meet again when this cruel war is over?" " I hope 
so," he replied, and proceeded to speak in friendly terms in reference to the future. 
After some minutes conversation I rose a second time remarking to him, "Mr. 
Davis some of your friends, and 1 may say admirers, have asked me this question, 
1 Do you kuo,w that you louk precisely like Jeff Davis? '" He blushed like a girl, 
the only emotion he manifested during the interview, and replied, " Colonel, if I 
were in your place I should not consider that a compliment by any means; you are 
a better looking man than Jeff. Davis." 

I said, " Mr. President, I do not consider it a compliment, ' over the left.,' by any 
means, as our boys say in the northwest" We then had a few minutes conversa- 
tion in reference to my own history, and to our having met before. After which I 
indicated my desire to leave, and said to him, "Mr. Davis when may I come to eee 
you agaiu}" He rose from his seat, and coming close to me, replied, "Colonel, 
when you can come to tell me that your people have concluded to allow us to do 
just what you claim to do for yourselves, namely, to govern ourselves in our own 
way, I shall then be mo-it happy to see you; until then I do not know that it is 
necessary for you to call again ;" and taking my right hand in both of his and 
shaking it most cordially, he said, " I have the highest respect for your character, 
for your frankness, and your honesty; and separate and apart from the contest in 
which we are engaged you have my highest regard and my most fervent prayers 
for your future welfare;" and thus we parted, I to go to my duties upon the battle 
field, and Mr. Davis to take care of the Southern Confederacy. 

As to Mr. Davis's health I will say that-with the pressure now upon him he will 
live a thousand years if other causes than his present labors do not undermine his 
constitution Those who knew Mr. Davis in former times may imagine him with 
his iron will, bis unbending and unyielding determination to succeed, but they fall 
far short of the true Jefferson Davis with the Southern Confederacy upon his 
shoulders. Hs is as determined and as independent as it is possiple for man to be, 
and when he says he "will have independence or annihilation" he means what he 
says — the whole of it. 

When during our conversation I stated to Mr. Davis that I believed if there was 
an armistice for thirty or sixty days, such was the feeliny: of our people North and 
South in reference to the war, that it would be impossible to get them to engage 
afresh in the conflict, he replied, " I would accept an armistice of thirty, sixty, or 
ninety days provided it were understood that' at the expiration of the armistice you 
proposed to acknowledge our independence. Unless this is your design an armis- 
tice i3 unnecessary." And in relation to the future prosecution of the war, Mr. 
Davis took this position: that there were yet four million of people to be slain, and 
before we sujugated them we would have to pass over the dead bodies of those 
four million of people. 

In the course of the conversation, the question of slavery came up. I told Mr. 
Davis that the South did not understand Mr. Lincoln, that they ought to have 
waited until he had been iuaugrated, that he would have secured to them all their 
rights under the Constitution, that he would have executed the fugutive slave law 
to the letter, even if he had been compelled to call out a great army to accomplish 
it. And I here took occasion to ask Mr. Davis, whether or not he would consent to 
the reconstruction of the Union provided slavery had secured to it all the rights it 
possessed at the commencement of the war. Mr. Benjamin, who was present, re- 
plied, "That if the throat of every slave in the Confederacy were cut it would not 
change their determination to secure their freedom." Mr. Davis sanctioned Mr. 
Benjamin's remarks, and said further : " We are not fighting for slavery ; I had a 
few slaves, they were of no use to me, I was of some set vice to them. You have forci- 
bly emancipated them— taken them away contrary to their will — but we are not 
contending for slavery, we are contending for our independence." 

In reply to my remark that there was but one opinion with us in reference to the 
prosecution of the war, that while there might be two candidates for the Presiden- 
cy, the principal plank of the platform of each would be the vigorious prosecution 
of the war, for that was the real sentiment of the people, he replied : "I can very 
readily see that a third party attempting to occupy the mean between those two 



6 

extremes would be like a man sitting down between two stools, he would find him- 
self upon the ground." 

I had two objects, especially in view, in my conversation with Mr. Davis, one was 
to impress strongly upon his mind the unanimity of our people in their purpose to 
put down the rebellion ; the other to make known the disposition of the loyal States 
to treat the rebels kindly, and even magnanimously, if the struggle was once ended. 

After he had taken his position, and declared his unalterable resolution to accept 
nothing short of independence for his Confederacy, my next effort was, by addi- 
tional considerations, if possible, to drive him from that position. But the result of 
each argument was only to draw from him a more or less formal repetition of his 
cherished sentiment — " Independence or annihilation." 

Whatever, therefore, may be the result of'my mission to Richmond, it has at 
least served one most important purpose — it has given to the country rebel terms of 
peace, and that from the mouth of Jeff. Davis himself. It has given additional 
proof of what rebel fighting, and rebel newspapers, and rebel barbarity had shown 
before, namely, that the Richmond government will listen to no peace that does not 
disrupt the Union and concede rebel independence. To Mr. Davis, amnesty was 
nothing, slavery was nothing, armistice was nothing, and separation and independ- 
ence everything. Upon independence he had staked all of the South, and he would 
have it or leave no soul of their surviving four and a half million to tell the tale of 
southern ruin and overthrow. 

Mr. Davis sees his own fate blended intimately with that of his Confederacy. Its 
failure is his failure ; the Union restored is at once death to it and him. The moBt 

Serfect prostration of northern manhood before him, such as would satisfy Vallan- 
igham, and the Woods, and the Seymours, if it involved the restoration of the "Id 
Government, would be failure and shame to him, while independence would give 
him a kingdom and make him the founder of a new nation. 

His control of his people is absolute, his government an unquestioned despotism. 
He has his army perfect!} 7 in hand, and w,ith his bayonets behind it, pushes it into 
the jaws of death. While his military power remains unbroken he will have no 
armistice and will spurn all offers of pardon with ineffable contempt If we get the 
Union back we must wrench it from his grasp. by force, we must liberate his ser- 
vile army, we must subdue the proud aristocracy of which he is the culmination 
and the hope. Jeff. Davis says there is no use in an armistice unless it be under- 
stood beforehand that it is to prepare the way for the acknowledgment of south- 
ern independence. And we agree with him as things now stand. An armistice 
will only be in place when the great rebel is brought to feel his need of amnesty 
by the crumbling of his armies. He wants an armistice to be followed by southern 
independence, we want one which shall follow rebel overthrow ; one in which loyal 
men shall dictate terms of peace, and traitors shall present themselves as suppliants. 
Mr. Davis tells us that slavery is no longer an element in the war. He is mis- 
taken. . Even supposing that the south regard their peculiar and idol institution 
as wrecked past the power of earthly carpentry, yet the old hate of abolition and 
the old aristocratic pride and contempt of labor, the essential outgrowths of slavery, 
still survive in their full force. If, in the language of Mr. Benjamin, "the throat 
of every slave in the confeJeracy were cut," slavery would still live in the southern 
blood. But though Mr. Davis is mistaken in eliminating slavery from the southern 
view of the war there is still some truth, at least for himself, in the assertion. To 
him, with the southern armies in his grasp, with the fame of founder and father of 
the Southern Confederacy gleaming before his eyes; to him with the shame and 
humiliation of failure before him; to him with fame and shame thus trembling in 
opposite balances, slavery, considered as a southern institution, is no doubt of but 
little account. It is his interest to prove to the southern people that the necessity 
for a southern government does not pass away with slavery. He must tremble as 
he thinks of the possibility that the death of slavery might naturally be regarded 
as making a new nation unneccessary. He will hold on to slavery, but his policy is 
to say, "Separation is essential even without slavery. My associate in power, Mr. 
Stephens, was in error when he called it the corner stone of the new government." 
The upshot of the whole matter is, that Mr. Jefferson Davis will make no peace, 
will have no armistice, will listen to no negotiations, except on the admitted basis 
of separation. He will sacrifice not only his own life but even slavery, and require 
our victorious arms to march over the slain bodies of the four and a half million of 
the seceded population. This is his expressed purpose, and the veins and sinews, 
souls and bodies of the people he represents are in his hands ; he will dare what he 
threatens, and do what he dares unless the war for the Union prevents him. It is 
my deliberate conviction that if the Chicago convention, headed by the Woods, the 



Seymours and Vallandigham, could lead the loyal States into the presence of Jeff. 
Davis, and if all the people should then humbly kneel and ask him to allow the 
Union to be restored, he would not only reject but utterly spurn the prayer. There 
is therefore nothing left us but to fight. And whoever counsels an opposite oourse 
is either deceived or a deceiver. He knows not with whom he Was to deal. He 
is, whether consciously or otherwise, leading the nation to the altars of a deceit- 
ful peace to be sacrificed. War, war alone, wisely, bravely, unitedly waged, will 
save the country. We cannot meet the spear with the pruning hook. Peace plat- 
forms, constructed by well known traitors, a»e not the implements with which to 
oppose the man who will have either independence or annihilation. His chief army 
now confronts us at Richmond, that broken, he is in our power, and the war ended. 
Let us strike. 



A : ' 



PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN OF t$64. 
UNION CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEE. 



Hon. E. D. MORGAN, of New York. 
" J AS. HARLAN, of Iowa. 
" L. M. MORRILL, of Maine. 
[Senate.) 



Hon. E. B. WASIIBURNE, of Illinois. 
" R B. VAN VALKENBURG, N. Y. 
". J. A. GaRFIELD, of Ohio. 
" J. G. BLAINE, of Maine. 

House of Representatives. 

E. D. MORGAN, Chairman. J A3. HARLAN, Treamrer. D. N. COOLEY, Secy. 



Committee Rooms, Washington, B. G , Sep. 2, 1864. 
Dear Sir: The Union Congressional Committee, in addition to the documents 
already published, propose to issue immediately the following documents for dis- 
tribution among the people. 

1. MCMellan's Military Career Reviewed and Exposed. 

2. George H. Pendleton, his Disloyal Record and Antecedents. 

8. The Chicago Copperhead Convention, the men who composed and controlled it 

4. Bn^e sin render of the Copperheads to the Rebels in arms. 

5. The Military and Naval Situation, and the Glorious Achievements of our Sol- 

dieis and Sailors. 

6. A Few Plain Words with the Private Soldier. 

7. What Lincoln's Administration has done. 

8. The Hi.tory of McClellan's "Arbitrary Arrest" of the Maryland Legislature. 

9. Can the Couutry Pay the Expenses of the War? 

10. Doctrines of the Copperheads North identical with those of the Rebels South. 

11. The Constitution Upheld and Maintained. 

12. Rrbel Terms of Peace. 

13. Peace, to bn Enduring, must be Conquered. 

14. A History of Cruelties and Atrocities of the Rebellion. 
16. Evidences of a Copperhead Conspiracy in the Northwest. 

The above documents will be printed in English and German in eight or sixteen 
page pamphlets, and sent, postage free, according to directions at the rate of one or 
two dollars per hundred copies. The plans and purposes of the Copperheads hav- 
ing been di- closed by the action of the Chicago Convention, they should at once be 
laid betoie the loyai people of the country. There is but two months between 
this and the election, and leagues, clubs, and individuals should loose no time in 
sending in their orders. Remittances should be made in Greenbacks or drafts on 
New York City, payable to the order of James Harlan. 

Address — Free. 

Hon. JAMES HARLAN, 

Washington, D. G. 

Very respectfully, yours, &c, 

D. N. COOLEY, Secretary. 

- i. . w,'j= 

Frin ted Dy L. Towers for the Union Congressional Committee. 



ibhCJMl Covi cYGb yi o n ^ » C 



comvr, i + U«<, . r .; 



To be Enduring, must be Conquered. 



Cak any man doubt the truth of the above heading who knows 
the past history of the country ? We think not. The men who 
began this Avar, and others of their spirit, now in their graves, for 
many years past have shown a persistent, an unfaltering purpose 
to rule the country or to ruin it. Nothing has been allowed to 
stand in the way of their passion for power and control. The 
history of the debates in Congress has shown the country but 
little else than pro-slavery truculency, bluster, and domineering 
on the one part, and meek submission or tame resistance on the 
other. Hectoring airs of assumed superiority, backed up by 
trenchant and scolding declamation, by threats, by challenges to 
mortal combat, by the display of bowie-knives and pistols, and by 
the occasional use of the bludgeon in the halls of the National 
Legislature, have given us a fair view of the prevailing type of 
Southern civilization, as well as abundant warning of what 
was coming. But the North was both blind and deaf. We tried 
to persuade ourselves that these manifestations had no depth of 
meaning — that they were personal to the parties committing the 
disorders, and not a genuine representation of the ruling Southern 
mind. 

We have found, however, that our charity controlled our judg- 
ment ; that the rage of slaveholding Congressmen was truly rep- 
resentative ; that the sense of their own superiority, and the pur- 
pose to rule, were genuine traits of the Whole Southern aristocracy. 

Printed for the Union Congressional Committee by John A. Gray & Green, New-York. 



t ^ 

2 h "t3 

South-Carolina, when she presented a cane to Bully Brooks, in 
honor of his brtnal assault upon Senator Sumner, expressed well- 
nigh the universal sentiment of leading Southern men. No gen- 
uine Southern newspaper condemned it — nearly every one de- 
fended and gloried in it. Brooks and South-Carolina held the 
club, and inflicted the blows ; but the ivhole slaveocracy accepted 
the responsibility, and envied South-Carolina and Brooks their 
leadership. This was the temper of the slaveholding class as 
such. Their estimate of Southern blood and Southern prowess, 
and Southern gentility and refinement, allowed of no comparison 
between them and the North, and entitled them, in their own 
view, to regard us, with their own landless and slaveless class, as 
" mudsills," and to reduce us to order, if need be, at the mouth 
of the pistol or under the blow of the bludgeon. 

Now these are the people who have brought war upon the 
country. These are the parties from whom, and with whom, we 
are to secure peace. Is there 'any thing in the temper of their 
class, in the modesty of their conduct, in their peculiar recogni- 
tion of Northern rights, or the rights of labor anywhere, in their 
Congressional history, to induce the belief, in any sane mind, that 
they can ever be coaxed into terms ? Can any one who knows 
history believe in the cure of these men by " peace " nostrums, to 
be administered by such doctors as Seymour, Vallandigham, and 
the Woods ? Will any thing short of a sound and thorough 
whipping produce political regeneration in such men as these ? 
We trow not. 

But let us look further in the same general direction. This 
proud, insurgent aristocracy is not a caste created by wealth, or 
by learning, or by legalized nobility. It rests upon a distinct 
system of labor, in which the capital owns the laborer, and in 
which the laborer's condition is so deeply degraded as to carry 
labor down to the abyss of the profoundest disgrace. The work- 
ing-man is a chattel ; his manhood is denied ; he has no lawful 
marriage, no control of his children, no right to learn his A, B, C ; 
he owns no property — not even his own body or his own souk 
To so foul a thing, made nevertheless of God's image, is the des- 
tiny of labor bound. This treatment of mefl and of labor, besides 
making slaveholders proud braggarts, as we have seen, turns 
against them the instincts of humanity all over the world. It ar- 
rays in opposition to them the horny-handed sons of toil at home aod 
abroad. It brings upon them the reprobation of true Christians, 



and disinterested philanthropists everywhere. Now, the horror 
of all good men for slavery is the measure of rebel elevation to it. 
Slavery is rooted in the rebel heart, and taints the rebel blood ; it 
is rebel wealth and rebel pride ; it has made its sivpporters dicta- 
torial and fierce. When it was threatened, they were alarmed and 
maddened, and when, at the election of Mr. Lincoln, it was beaten 
at the ballot-box, they rushed to arms. 

Mr. Jefferson Davis may say they are not fighting for slavery. 
He utters a falsehood. There never was any thing else to fight 
about. Slavery made the South what it was before the war, and 
the rebel animus in every battle has been intense hate of abolition- 
ists. This hate of abolitionists is only the negative side of the 
love of slavery. The miser hates the man who carries off his in- 
gots precisely as much 'as he loves the ingots. His heart is with 
the lost treasure and his curse with its new possessor. But negroes 
to a rebel aristocrat are more than wealth ; they are aristocracy, 
they are caste. Without them, he is a cripple without his crutch, 
an unhorsed cavalryman, or rather is he the man-part of a centaur, 
cut loose from the animal to whose back he had grown fast. 
When the severance takes place between master and slave, the 
present structure of Southern society tumbles into ruins ; its pecu- 
liar civilization comes to an end ; the plough stands still in the 
furrow ; the cotton, and sugar, and rice, rot in the fields, and the 
border States lose their market for their crops of biped cattle. 

Following such results must come the hated system of free 
labor which has enriched the North. Slaves must become men, 
choosing their employment and employers ; laboring white men 
will be emancipated from the vile shackles of prejudice ; free 
schools must spring up, fostered and protected by a free pres's 
and a free pulpit, and the pride and arrogance of Southern 
knighthood and Southern chivalry must die the death. The 
nation will then become homogeneous, and patriotism take the 
place of sectionalism. 

Now is it possible to get a permanent peace until this tap-root 
of the rebellion, slavery, is destroyed ? If we stop fighting now, 
and leave slavery where it is, and .the Southern people go to work 
to tinker up " the corner-stone " of their system, so sealed and 
split by the blasts of war, can we expect an enduring peace V 
Will the bloodshed of the conflict have reconciled the two 
opposing systems of civilization ? Will our churches and schools 
cease to denounce slavery as " the sum of all villainies " ? Will 



Northern politicians cease to make it a party issue ? Will the 
anti-slavery presses accept the gag for the purpose of maintaining 
peace ? "Will Southern statesmen, politicians, and preachers cease 
to resent Northern interference with their " institutions " ? Never. 
I A peace that leaves slavery still in existence is hollow. It is 
healing the wound with the bullet still in it. It is deliberately 
setting the broken limb crooked, so as to insure the necessity of 
breaking it again. 

If, therefore, we would have an enduring peace, we must destroy 
slavery, root and branch. And now allow us to ask the reader 
whether or not a peace on the basis of the President's emancipa- 
tion policy, on the basis of human bondage dead and buried, can 
be secured in any other way than by conquest? Must not 
universal emancipation be conquered ? Will the rebels give up 
slavery, and thus the whole struggle, until their military power is 
completely overthrown? We know they will not. We must 
crush the power of the foe by force of arms in order to remove 
the causes of future war. 

This view is fully confirmed by the course pursued by the pro- 
slavery party in the free States. Fernando Wood recently declared, 
in his place in Congress, that. " the normal condition of the black 
man in this country is slavery." In this cry the smaller fry, with 
their weaker voices, heartily join. They want a peace which shall 
not be conquered. They would save the Southern idol, in order 
to propitiate and use their fellow-devotees. They would bring 
back the rebels with power as little diminished by their crimes 
as possible. They would reestablish the old pro-slavery partner- 
ship between North and South, and yield their faces of dough 
once again to the old, familiar manipulation of Southern fingers ; 
all, of course, in hope of the spoils of office. 

These men of Chicago ought to understand the ultimate effect 
of their schemes. And Ave suppose they do, but they are willing 
to sacrifice the future and permanent peace of the country to their 
own juresent power. If they can patch up a peace at once, and 
save slavery, the only ligature which holds them and their rebel 
allies together, they will let the future take care of itself. Their 
feeling is : " Our allies must not be conquered, even if Ave should 
be obliged to fight them again." They Avould make a bad, a 
Avicked peace now, and trust their skill to corrupt the public con- 
science so as to make the peace enduring. But they miscalcu- 
late ; the virtue and patriotism of the people are not the supple 



and plastic things they fancy. A wheedling peace, a peace of 
compromise with armed traitors, would speedily result in another 
war. It is not in the power of the Chicago Convention, united 
with the whole Copperhead faction, permanently to corrupt, or for 
an? great length of time to hoodwink, the American people. 

If we now, in conclusion, look at the history of the rebellion it- 
self, our argument for a conquered peace will find its most direct 
and powerful confirmation. Have the rebels fought any of their 
battles in a spirit of compromise ? Have they conscripted their 
population ? Have they fed our prisoners ? Have they applied 
to foreign courts for recognition ? Have they pillaged and burned 
our commerce at sea ? Have they treated our colored troops in a 
manner to indicate the possibility of peace this side of complete 
conquest ? Let the whole male population of the South, from 
beardless boys to trembling and hoary-headed grandfathers, forced 
into their army, answer. Let Belle Island, with its starvation, its 
out-door sleeping apartments, and its rows of frozen Union sol- 
diers, answer. Let Fort Pillow make reply, with its murdered 
colored soldiers, burnt and chopped up in cold blood. 

2sTo, no ; the rebels have burned every bridge in their rear. 
They intended to leave, and have left, no open door of retre'at. 
They have staked their all upon the sword, and no man in au- 
thority among them has ever uttered one word or syllable, or 
made even a gesture, that hinted at peace, except on the ground 
of Southern independence. They assert over and over again the 
impossibility of living under one Government. They must be 
free, they tell us, or not be at all ; and we have no path left open 
to us but to subdue them. Brought back, conquered, they may 
be obedient, but returning unsubdued they would keep the coun- 
try in perpetual turmoil. We can only, therefore, follow the 
example of Algernon Sidney, and " pursue gentle peace with the 
sword." 

We now ask our reader to go back a single moment and ponder 
our argument. We have shown, in the first place, that the char- 
acter of slave civilization is such that even before the war it could 
brook no opposition, no freedom except for itself; that our Con- 
gressional history, for the last twenty years, has been marked by 
pro-slavery truculency, bullying, blustering, and bragging, by the 
use of bludgeons, pistols, and bowie-knives ; that this was not excep- 
tional or confined to a few, but was accejDted, defended, and even 
complimented by the many, both in and out of Congress ; the 



6 

pulpit did not reprove it, and the press magnified it ; and finally, 
that the men who controlled Southern opinion had come to the 
conclusion that their right of domination over the country was 
innate. From chastising us with whips, they proceeded to scor- 
pions, waxing daily madder and madder, until their chronic sense 
of dignity and masterhood broke out into open violence against 
the Union. Now, will it be possible again to live in peace with 
such people until they are conquered — until the inordinate conceit 
is taken out of them? We believe not. 

We have further seen that slavery, the bone of contention in the 
present strife, is the foundation, the life, the soul of Southern so- 
ciety ; that so long as it lives, the real and only cause of war con- 
tinues ; that if we heal over our troubles with this element still 
extant, we have only an apparent, and hence only a temporary, 
peace ; that, therefore, slavery must perish, if peace, when it comes, 
is to last ; and that such is the hold of slavery on the Southern 
mind, that we must absolutely cut our way with the sword through 
all the military power of the enemy^ before we can reach and de- 
molish the inner sanctuary in which slavery is worshipped. The 
last thing the South will give up is slavery. They will yield it 
only when they must — when the weapons of war are wrenched 
from their clutch — and not before. 

"We have also shown that the so-called peace party, the pro- 
Southern, pro-slavery party, of the North, are Working in harmony 
with the Southern rebels ; that if, by giving countenance and hope 
to traitors, they make them more difficult to conquer, they also 
make their conquest the more necessary. For if Northern peace- 
men dictate the settlement w r ith rebellion, the spirit that fired on 
Sumter will still survive, and must soon repeat the horrors of 
war. 

We have shown, finally, that the Avar now raging has been con- 
ducted on the rebel side in a manner to show that compromise is 
impossible ; that Jeff Davis himself, with all his satellites in the 
Southern aristocracy, prefers extermination to the Union in the 
best shape in which it could be restored. If the Union comes, 
therefore, it comes by the sword ; its terms must be dictated by 
our victorious armies. Whatever McClellan may have done while 
in commandof the army, however " easy" he may have " touched 
off" his guns, however gently he may have waved his peaceful 
sword, the rebels have indulged in no such shams ; they have tried 
to strike home to the heart of the nation at every blow. Nor 



have. they, at any period of their terrible struggle for independence, 
ever shown the slighest wavering in their purpose— the slightest 
sign that they would settle for " half a loaf." Their whole course 
says : "The whole or none.". It says to Chicago : " We thank 
you for fighting, our battles,, but you are fools for* your pains. 
Whip your Government for us, or help us to do it, and then let us 
alone." No, there is no hope of patching up a peace ; and if there 
were, it would only be " putting new cloth into the old garment 
and making the rent worse." We must fight till " the last armed 
foe expires," we must whip the rebels, even if we have to fight their 
Northern allies into the bargain. Once conquered, they will be 
easy to settle with ; until then, any settlement must be disgraceful, 
ruinous, and temporary. s 



PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN OF 1864. 

UNION CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEE. 



Hon. E. D. MORGAN, of New-York. 



" JAS. HARLAN, of Iowa. 
" L. M.MORRiy,, of Maine. 
(Senate.) 



Hon. E. B. WASHBURNE, of Illinois. 



R. B. VAN VALKENBURG, N. T. 
J. A. GARFIELD, of Ohio. 
J. G. BLAINE, of Maine. 
(House of Representatives.) 
E. D. MORGAN, Chairman. JAS. HARLAN, Treat. D. N. COOLEY, See> 

Committee Rooms, Washington, D. -€., Sept. 2, 1864. ■ 
Dear Sir : The Union Congressional Committee, in addition to the documents 
already published, propose to issue immediately the following documents for dis- 
tribution among the people : 

1. McClellan's Military Career Reviewed and Exposed. 

2. George H. Pendleton, his Disloyal Record and Antecedents. 

3. The Chicago' Copperhead Convention, the Men who Composed and 

Controlled it. 

4. Base Surrender of the Copperheads to the Rebels in Arms. 

- 5. The Military and Naval Situation and the Glorious Achievements of 
our Soldiers and Sailors. 

6. A Few Plain Words, with the Private Soldier. 

7. What Lincoln's Administration has done. 

8. The History of McClellan's "Arbitrary Arrest" of the Maryland 

Legislature. 

9. Can the Country Pay the Expenses of the War ? 

10. Doctrines of the Copperheads North identical with those of the Rebels 

South. 

11. The Constitution Upheld and Maintained. 
' 1 2. Rebel Terms of Peace. 

13. Peace, to be Enduring, must be Conquered. 

14. A History of Cruelties and Atrocities of the Rebellion. 

15. Evidences of a Copperhead Conspiracy in the Northwest. 

16. Seward's Auburn Speech. 
' 17. Schurz's Speech. 

18. Copperhead Votes in Congress. 

19. " Leave Pope to get out of his Scrape." 

20. Shall we have an Armistice ? 

21. Barnard's Peninsula. 

22. Sherman, Hooker, and Grant. 

23. Peace, to be Enduring, must be Conquered. 

The above documents will be printed in English and German, in eight or sixteen 
page pamphlets, and sent postage free, according to directions, at the rate of one 
or two dollars per hundred copies. The plans and purposes of the Copperheads 
having been disclosed by the action of thte Chicago Convention, they should at once 
be laid before the loyal people of the country. There are but two months between 
this and the election, and leagues, clubs, and individuals should lose no time in 
sending in their orders. 

Remittances should be made in Greenbacks or drafts on New-York City, payable 
to the order of James Harlan. Address, Free. 

HON. JAMES HARLAN, 

"Washington, D. C. 
Very respectfully, yours, etc., 

D. N. COOLEY 

Secretary. 



' A BRIEF HISTORY. 

OF TIIE 

CRUELTIES AND ATROCITIES 

OF THE REBELLION. 

COMPILED FROM THE MOST AUTHENTIC SOURCES, BY THOS. L. WILSON. 

._ ^ ■- 

" Immediate efforts be made for a cessation of hostilities."— Peace aiid 

Disunion Platform of the Chicago Copperhead Convention. 
TREATMENT OF PRISONERS OF WAR. 

The rule formerly was, to slay without mercy, or reduce to a state 
of abject bondage, the unfortunate captive of war. The men who 
perpetrated such cruel and bloody deeds, 'even in the darkest age, and 
places of the world, have been written in all history as barbarous, 
and their memory branded with infamy. Modern civilization and 
Christianity, amongst rrioat nations, have induced a better method. 
How far their intluem e has been manifested, under the auspices of 
the rebel Government, the brief, well-authenticated statements of 
Ojf/'al occurrences, recorded in the following pages will show : 

Surgeon Iloniston was taken prisoner at the first battle of Bull 
Run. lie begged to be allowed to remain upon the field to take care 
of our wounded, but in vain. Tie stated that Dr. Pailcy, of South 
Carolina, was sent to the field by Gen. Beauregard to take charge of 
our wounded, but would not allow us (Federal Surgeons) to perform 
operations upon our own men, but had them performed lry his Assis- 
tants, young men — some of them with no more knowledge of what 
they attempted, than an apothecary's clerk; "they performed the 
operations in a most horrible manner, some of them absolutely fright- 
ful ;" there was no attention paid to the wounded, and, it was impos- 
sible for them to get anything to eat; they lay through a drenching 
rain on Monday, the battle having occurred on Sunday, and a sultry 
sun on Tuesday, until Wednesday, before they wore permitted to be 
removed, when their " wounds were completely alive with larva;'" 
some lay on the field for five days. Let it be remembered, that this 
was at the outset of the contest, before repeated collisions had whetted 
the passions of the contending parties. 

" Immediate effort-' be made for a cessation of hostilities." 

Surgeon Swalen testifies, that he was on the battle-field ten or 
twelve days after the battle, and saw some of our men still unburied 
and entirely naked, having been robbed of their clothing by the 
rebels ; (it seems unnatural that "iiigii-mtnded gentlemen," chivalry, 
would actually steal, unless driven to it by necessity, which could not. 
have been the case so early in the history of the Confederacy ;) some 
of our men were buried face downward — an intended disgrace. Some 
of the graves had been opened by pushing rails beneath the bodies 
to get the tops of the skulls to make drinking cups. One of these 
cups was found by a member of a New Jersey regiment, after our 
army advanced upon the forts, defended by " wooden guns," and 
which had kept McClellan at bay for eighteen months. 

"Immediate efforts be made for a cessation of hostilities.'' 

Dr. Ferguson, of New York, was fired upon when attendiug the 



wounded, and after he told them who he was, they brutally shot hira 
in the leg. When he was carried oft' the field the jolting of the am- 
bulances so hurt him, that he involuntarily groaned, whereupon a 
rebel officer rode up to him and threatened to blow his brains out if 
he repeated "his noise." 

" Immediate efforts be made for a cessation of hostilities." 

General Rickctts testifies that when he lay on the field wounded, 

the passing rebels called out, "knock out his brains, the d d 

Yankee." He heard of many of the prisoners, who were bayoneted, 
aud two or three shot after they arrived in Richmoud. 

" Immediate efforts be made for a cessation of hostilities." 

Senator Sprague, who went to recover the bodies of Col. Slocum 
and Major Ballou, testified that he was told, when searching the bat- 
tle-ground, that the Colonel's body had been dug up, his'head cut 
off, and his body burned. After thorough and repeated investiga- 
tions, the Senator became fully satisfied that both of these gallant 
men did indeed suffer this unhallowed and barbarous rite of sepul- 
chre at the hands of their own countrymen, who boast themselves 
gentlemen, par excellence, their chivalry, and that their's is the only 
genuine type of manhood on the face of God's green earth. The 
Senator corroborates the statement that many of our men were buried 
face downward, and similar outrages unheard of and unthought of, 
save among the unsanctified rites of pagan and savage nations. 
Heaven save us and the rest of mankind from such Christianity, and 
such civilization, if their's is the only genuine. An official report 
of Judge Advocate General Holt, dated March 27, 1863, gives a 
heart-rending picture of the barbarities of the rebels upon twenty- 
two Federal prisoners, captured near Chattanooga, Tenn. One of 
them was stripped, tied down to a stone, and whipped until life was 
nearly extinct. After whipping him, they brought a rope to hang 
him, but his life was finally spared. Eight of these men were hung, 
after having been tried b} r a court-martial and acquitted. But the 
authorities at Richmond over-ruled the court, and ordered them 
hung. From the breaking of the rope, after being sometime sus- 
pended, two of these unhappy victims were restored to conscious- 
ness ; they begged for one hour for prayer and preparation for death, 
which was peremptorily refused, and the execution proceeded. What 
better is this than cowardly butchery ? The remaining prisoners, 
reduced to fourteen, closely confined in jail at Atlanta, accidentally 
learned that it was determined by the Richmond government to hang 
them, and they laid a plan of escape. Eight succeeded, six entered 
our lines, two, were never heard from. The following brief dispatch 
tells the story of the remaining six: "At the end of eleven months 
terminated their pitiless persecutions in the prisons of the South — 
persecutions begun and continued amid indignities and sufferings on 
their part, and atrocities on the part of the barbarous foe, which il 
lustrates far more faithfully than any human language could express, 
the demoniac spirit of a revolt, every throb of whose life is a crime 
against the very race to which we belong." 

" Immediate efforts be made for a cessation of hostilities." 
LIBBY PRISON. 

At a meeting of Surgeons of the United States Array and Navy, a 



report was prepared, November 26th, 18G3, and sent to the Presi- 
dent, which contained the following facts. About one thousand offi- 
cers of all grades, and from both branches of the service, are confined 
in Libby prison, whose walls are unplastered, thus open to the full 
sweep of the winter winds, or closed with boards — rendering the 
place dark, dreary, and loathsome in the extreme. None of the pri- 
vate soldiers are furnished with bedding of any kind. Belle Island 
contains six thousand three hundred prisoners, whose condition is 
wretched beyond all description. An insufficient number of tents to 
protect the. men from the cold and rain, no blankets nor bedding 
given them by their captors. Only one Surgeon was assigned to the 
Island, who makes but one visit a day, and then does not enter the 
enclosures of the men. Such as are too sick to walk, never see him; 
they are hurried off to the hospital when their condition is absolutely 
helpless. An officer of high standing, who visited the Island, says 
the men followed him in crowds, and in the most eager tones begged 
of him for bread ; many literally starved to death. Some days as 
high as fifty died, and from no other apparent cause. Officers, for 
the most trivial offences, were confined for weeks in dark, damp 
dungeons. Men were shot by the guards for standing near and look- 
ing out of the windows. Some were shot, others wounded, by the 
wanton wretches, who stood their guns on the floor beneath and fired 
through the floor overhead. To such extremities were these un- 
fortunate men driven, that in one instance a dog was killed and 
eaten ; and the prisoners on the Island were known to hunt the 
gutters for bones, to suck from them nutriment to appease the terri- 
ble gnawings of hunger. These are facts, derived from personal 
observation, transpiring in a Christian community, among " high-toned 
gentlemen," but written right across the rebel Confederacy, dark as 
midnight and revolting as despair. 

" Immediate efforts be made/or a cessation of hostilities." 
FORT PILLOW. 

The most revolting of all barbarities was that of Fort Pillow. The 
War Committee, after thorough inquiry into the conduct of Forest, 
and his murderous associates, report that the atrocities committed 
were not the result of passions excited by the heat of the conflict, 
but of a policy deliberately decided upon and unhesitatingly an- 
nounced. When the women and children were crossing the river by 
the aid of the Union gunboats, the rebel sharpshooters, mingled 
with and shielded by them, fired upon the officers and men. Like 
incarnate fiends as they are, they placed women in front of their 
lines as the}' moved upon the fort. They rushed into the fort during 
the time the flag of truce was flying, which is held sacred even by 
Turks and savages, and commenced an indiscriminate slaughter, 
sparing neither age nor sex, white nor black, soldier nor civilian, 
men, women nor children ; of the latter, those not over ten years of age 
were made to' face their murderers, and thus shot. The sick and 
wounded, w[iile lying in their beds in the hospitals, were dragged 
out and butchered without mercy. Numbers of men were collected 
into groups or lines, and deliberately shot down, and those of the 
wounded near the river bank were brutally kicked into the river, 
where they were drowned, heaping insult and torture upon the vie- 



tims of their diabolical cruelty. No barbarity which the most fiend- 
ish malignity could devise, was omitted by these incarnate demons. 
A mere child, which an officer had taken up behind him on his horse, 
was ordered to be- put down and shot, which was done. The tents 
where the wounded lay were set on fire, and many of their occupants 
were consumed in the flames; those who escaped were shot down or 
had their brains beaten out by the cowardly ruffians. One man was 
deliberately nailed down to the floor of a tent, the tent fired, and he 
perished in the flames. Another was nailed to the side of a build- 
ing, and it set on fire, and he also perished in the flames. These 
deeds of unutterable cruelty closed at night, only to be renewed next 
morning, when these brutes, for they cannot be called men, care- 
fully sought among the dead in all directions for the wounded that 
were still alive. 

" Immediate efforts be made for a cessation of hostilities." 
TREATMENT OP LOYAL MEN, AND THEIR SUFFERINGS FOR OPINION'S SAKE. 

September 18, 18G3, twenty or thirty rebels went in the night to the 
house of Marshal Glaze, a loyal man of Spring Creek, Virginia, and 
murdered John McMullen, Marshal Glaze, and a discharged Union sol- 
dier while asleep, three others making their escape. The same gang 
then visited the dwelling of a Mr. Noyes, a Union man near by, and 
attempted to pursuade, finally to force, a young girl to accompany them 
for a vile purpose ; upon refusal, they immediately shot her dead. — 
Authority, Mr. 31c Water, Member House of Delegates, West Va., 1861. 

"Immediate efforts be made for a cessation of hostilities." 

In January, 1863, James Keith, with the 65th N. C. regiment, was 
ordered to arrest some men at Laurel Hill for seizing salt at Marshal, 
N. C. Before the regiment arrived, those engaged in the seizure fled, 
and the innocent had to suffer. Twelve persons were arrested, varying 
in their ages from seven to sixty, who protested their innocence and 
plead for a trial, which was promised. They were marched off, but had 
proceeded but a few miles when they were taken into a mountain gorge, 
and five of them ordered to kneel ; a file of soldiers was drawn up in 
front of them, when, deaf to the agonizing cries for mercy, the protesta- 
tions of their perfect innocence, of the promise of trial, and entreaties 
for a brief time for prayer and preparation for death, the order was 
given to " fire," which the soldiers hesitated to obey. Keith told them 
peremptorily to obey or he would exchange places with the prisoners. 
Again the order was given, and five men fell ; five others were ordered 
to kneel, and of the number a little boy of twelve years, who plead with 
his executioners, " You shot my father in the face, please don't shoot me 
in the face," and covered his face with his hands. Five more fell at the 
order to fire, and among them was this child, wounded in both arms, and 
three of Ids brothers, dead ; the little hero, at the feet of the inhuman 
officer, implored to be spared to his mother, who was deprived of a 
husband and three sons at his hands, but in vain. He was dragged 
back to the place of execution, and was sacrificed, pierced with eight 
balls ; those in whom life was not extinct, were dispatched with pistols ; 
the bodies were tumbled into one grave or hole, into which they were 
jammed by the feet of these godless wretches, who danced and shouted 
in their sacrilegious work as if at a carnival of devils. They then re- 
turned to Laurel Hill, and commenced torturing the wives of loyal men 
in order to discover where the salt was concealed. Mrs. S. Skelton and 



5 

Mrs. E. Skelton were whipped until the blood ran down their persona 
to the ground, then hung until life was almost extinct, then taken down. 
Martha White, an idiotic girl, was whipped, then tied to a tree by the 
neck, and left all day. Mrs. Riddle, aged eighty-five years, was inhu- 
manly whipped, theu robbed. Mrs. Sallie More, aged seventy, was 
whipped until blood ran to the ground. One woman, name forgotten, 
who had a child five or six weeks old, was tied to a tree in the snow, 
and her child placed in the open door in her sight, and she was told they 
both should perish. — Oh the autliority of Col. Crauford, Tenn. 

"Immediate efforts be made for a cessation of hostilities." 

After the battle of Gettysburg, the Unionists of North Carolina began 
to speak more freely, and revolt was feared ;. in consequence, a regiment 
of soldiers was sent to Randolph county to preserve order. The kind 
of order that was preserved may be known by the following atrocity, 
one of many committed upon the unprotected loyalists of that region : 
These soldiers decoyed a one-armed man, under pretence of employing 
him as a guide, into a piece of woodland, where his body was found 
several days after, completely riddled with bullets ; he was heard a long 
distance begging and imploring for his life ; from the marks of blood 
and foot-prints, it was believed that he was compelled to run round his 
tormentors, they shooting at him as he ran to see how many times they 
hit and not kill him. — Authority, Bryan Tyson, Esq., author of " Bay 
Of Light:' 

"Immediate efforts be made for a cessation of hostilities? ' 

Champ Ferguson, the prince of fiends, and his gang, captured three 
white men and a negro in Fentress County, Tennessee, and tieing them 
together, drove them to Wolf Run. On the way, these wretches grati- 
fied their savage propensities by thrusting sharpened splinters of wood 
into the flesh of their helpless victims, and cutting them off close to their 
bodies. To make them travel faster t\\% T pitched their bowie kuives 
into them. When arrived at the run, the unfortunate men were put to 
slow torture by bayonets stuck into them, and cutting off pieces of' their 
flesh, until the work of death was well nigh complete. Finally, gorged 
with this disgusting work, Ferguson dispatched one of the men by actu- 
ally hacking him into pieces with his knife, and his comrades in guilt put 
an cud to the torments of the remainder by the same means. This same 
man, Ferguson declared in a speech at Sparta, Tennessee, that he had 
already killed sixteen Lincolnites, and intended to kill enough to make 
twenty-five, then he was willing to die. — Authority, Gen. J. B. Rogers, 
Tennessee. 

"Immediate efforts be made for a cessation of hostilities." 

In April, 1862, a man named Bright, sixty years old, living in Johnson 
County, Tennessee, with two sons and two nephews, was arrested by Col. 
Foulke's cavalry and marched into Ash County. There a grocery-keep- 
er, a brother murderer, proposed to treat this band of " chivalry " with 
eight gallons of brandy, if they would hang the prisoners without trial. 
The proposal was eagerly accepted, and the company of five were hung to 
the first tree without ceremony. — By authority of Col. Crawford, Tenn. 

In the later part of 1862, and early in 1863, the rebels in Mississippi 
conscripted all the men they could find between the ages of 18 and 60 : 
the Unionists fled to the woods to escape the conscription, and the fiends 
set blood hounds on their track ; by this inhuman method, many were 
captured and many nearly torn in pieces by these dogs before they could 
be rescued. 



6 

In Alabama the conscription was prosecuted with still greater sever- 
ity. During the winter of 1862, a young girl, while carrying food to her 
father, hidden in a cave, was attacked by one of these dogs, and literally 
torn to pieces. Also two women, who were making their way to Tus- 
cumbia, Franklin County, Alabama, were torn to pieces in the same way. 
In reference to the outrages committed in the above named States, Gen- 
eral Dodge, in a letter to a friend, says : " That while their leaders, from 
the President down, boast of their carrying on this war in accordance 
with the laws that govern nations, a few simple facts will put them to 
the blush. Men and women are hung and shot, and hunted down and 
captured by blood hounds ; fathers and husbands in the presence, and in 
spite of the tears and prayers of their wives and daughters, and many 
times with them, arc hung or shot. Houses were burned over the heads 
of their inmates, and women and children turned out of doors, and the 
community solemnly warned not to receive or harbor them, at their 
peril." The General says that "hundreds of men, women, and children, 
gray haired men, and cripples on crutches, were constantly fleeing from 
the tender mercies of these 'high-toned gentlemen' into his lines — Cor- 
inth, Mississippi — for life and protection, simply and only for opinion's 
sake." Will " sympathizers" any longer doubt, or dare deny, that Union 
men, under the conscription, were hunted or captured and mangled by 
blood hounds 1 Talk about " arbitrary arrest" and "illegal imprison- 
ment 1" 

"Immediate efforts be made for a cessation of hostilities." 

In May, 1861, a rebel command under Debrell and Jenkins, natives of 
Term., went from Austin, Texas, to destroy a German settlement near 
El Paso, of that State, consisting of two hundred and fifty souls. From 
eighty to one hundred of these ruffians, without the slightest provoca- 
tion, attacked this peaceful, prosperous, and thoroughly loyal communi- 
ty, and it is not known that thfee persons escaped. Fathers, mothers, 
sisters, brothers, and helpless infants constituted one common scene of 
indiscriminate carnage, and houses, barns, and crops were burned and 
trampled from the face of the earth. Authority, Gen. J. B. Rogers. 
"Sympathizers" are horrified at any attempt to stop such work by 
K coercion." Will the American public endorse such doctrines, and their 
application? 

"Immediate efforts be made for a cessation of hostilities." 

In March, 1863, Capt. Montgomery was kidnapped, and taken to a 
rebel camp on the Rio Grande, Texas. Here he was informed that he 
was to be hung, and mockingly ordered to say his prayers ; a rope was 
placed about his neck, and he commanded to tell what he knew of the 
Federal forces. He refused — whereupon, he was hung up to a branch 
of a tree until nearly dead, then let down ; when consciousness was re- 
stored, the same question was put, with the same result. He was then 
hung, where he remained until taken down, and buried by a friendly 
Mexican. When these cowardly murderers found it out, they 
disinterred the body, declaring that it should lay unburied, and 
thus rot. Capt. Bruin, of S. C, commanded this baud of outlaws, and 
for this act of " bravery and good conduct," in hanging a defenceless 
man, was promoted, and now rejoices in the title of Major of the 1st 
Texas Cavalry. Why not call upon such men and their friends to guide 
the destinies of this great country for the next four years, and for all 
time ? Why not ? — Colonel Stanley, of Texas, 



A letter dated Monterey, Mexico, Nov. 1862, from Vice Consul M. 
M. M. Kernmey, 'states, on the authority of an eye-witness, that twelve 
Unionists of Western Texas, provided with passports from the rebel 
Provost Marshal, were all massacred on the Neuces river, by a body of 
Texas rangers, but a short time previous to the above date. Also, a 
party of Germans were all killed, with one exception, who. escaped 
wounded, by the same party. The Consul remarks — " You cannot 
imagine how Union men are treated in Texas; they are hung on the 
slightest suspicion." 

"Immediate efforts be made for \c^e$sation of hostilities." 

An official letter from Maj. Gen. Blunt, Oct. 7th, 1863, in reference 
to the massacre at Baxter Springs, Mo., says : "The body of Major Cur- 
tis, the son of Maj. Gen. Curtis, was found where thrown from his horse, 
shot through the head, evidently having been murdered after being taken 
prisoner." The same was the case with all the wounded, the members 
of the band, the officers' clerks and the teamsters. The murderers were 
a portion of Coppey's and Quantrell's command, disguised by Federal 
uniforms. About seventy were thus butchered by these worse than 
liends. 

" Immediate efforts be made for a cessation of hostilities." 

An official letter from Col. W. R. Penick, dated Independence, Mo., 
January 11th, 1863, says: "Private Johnson, of the artillery, was brought 
in dead to-day, the fifth murdered the last week. They were all wound- 
ed and killed afterwards, in the most horrible manner that fiends could 
devise. All were shot in the head, several had their faces fearfully cut, 
evidently with boot-heels; powder was exploded in one man's ear, and 
both ears cut off close to the head." 

" Immediafe._efforts be made for a cessation of hostilities." 

In April, 1862, a party of rebel soldiers — if highwaymen can be thus 
dignified — on a tour of collecting conscripts, shot and instantly killed 
a poor deranged woman, Mrs. Ruth A. Rhea, on Lick Creek, in Green 
County, Tenn., because she attempted to drive them from her premises 
with a stick, when conscripting her only son and support. — Authority of 
Col. Crauford. 

" Immediate efforts be made for a cessation of hostilities." 

In a letter to the Mayor of New Orleans, April 26th, 1862, Admiral 
Farragut says: "I shall speedily and severely punish any person or 
persons who shall commit such Qutrages as were witnessed yesterday — 
armed men firing upon helpless women and children, for giving expres- 
sion to their pleasure at witnessing the old flag." These are the 
" gentlemen " soldiers we read of, formed out of the raw material called 
M chivalry." 

"Immediate efforts be made for a cessation of hostilities." 

Mr. St. Clair, mate of the steamboat McRay, states that " in August, 
1850, while his vessel was lying at the wharf near New Orleans, a 
German pedlar, who could scarcely understand or utter a sentence in 
English, was caught and hung to a lamp-post by a mob, for simply 
having in his possession photographs of Mr. Lincoln, then candidate for 
the Presidency, and not the least opposition was made by the police, nor 
any notice taken of it by the city authorities." 

'"Immediate efforts be made for a cessation of hostilities." 

During the engagement between the Federal gunboats and the rebel 



8 

• 

batteries on "White River, in Arkansas, a shot from oneof their batteries 
exploded the boiler of the Mound City. To avoid death by scalding, 
the crew leaped overboard, for whose rescue small boats were imme- 
diately sent. The rebels fired large guns and musketry upon the strug- 
gling, drowning men, and upon the crews of the boats sent to their aid, 
as they Aid under similar circumstances in the harbor of Mobile, upon 
the crew and officers of the unfortu>nat«. Tecumseh. This was done 
under the eye of Admiral Davis, who distinctly saw the cowardly act, 
and remarks in his report, " that the country will contrast these barbar- 
ities of a savage enemy witlj^ie hundred efforts made by our own 
people to rescue t lie wounded and disabled, under like circumstances, in 
the engagement of the Oth. ". 

''Immediate efforts be made for a cessation of.hostiliius. ,, 

Eev. Mr. Angcsey. of Miss., states that ."he was seized by the rebels, 
heavily ironed, and, with eighty others, placed in a dungeon ; my crime 
was that I defended the Union cause. While I was in prison, numbers 
were led out and shot. At first those in charge provided coffins; but 
the great number of executions exceeding the supply, they dug a trench, 
and made the man sit down on the brink, when a file of soldiers ad- 
vanced and fired three balls into the head and three into the hearts of 
their victims ; this was the mode of execution." He further states, that 
" he was himself hunted by bloodhounds, as were other Union men in 
that State." 

"Immediate efforts be made for a cessation of hostilities." 

A full history of all these atrocities would fill volumes. But why continue the recital ? 
Sufficient has been recounted in these brief pages to stamp these perfidious rebels as the 
most cruel and blood-thirsty wretches that ever disgraced.mankind. The mind recoils in 
horror from the contemplation of the barbarities they have practiced upon our citizens 
and .soldiers for no other crime than that of loving their country and their flag. But the 
civilized world will stand aghast at the fact that the recent- Copperhead convention at 
Chicago was composed of men in full and shameless sympathy with the bloody and brutal 
tyrants at Richmond, who inspired and commanded the commission of the crimes and 
atrocities herein exposed and held up to the execration of civilization. The platform of 
Peace and Disunion there erected will forever stand out in history as the foulest blot 
upon our escutcheon, and will make our latest posterity to W-ush with shame and humilia- 
tion. This shame must be wiped out as far as possible by the loyal people by burying, 
in one common political grave, that atrocious platform of an., ignominious and degrading 
peace, and the candidates who stand i nn ' -nting its infamy and its disloyalty. 

"Down with the traitor . up with the star I" 



New Rook — Entitled, " Sufferings for a Free GovernmcnT*; or, a nistory of the Cruelties and Atrocities of tb« 

Rebellion." 

This work has been carefully compiled and collated from official documents and other reliable sources, by 
Thomas R. Wilson, clerk, in tho Fourth Auditor's Office, Treasury Department, and embodies a thrilling history 
of the crWerties, tortures, and savage barbarities inflicted upon Union men, women, children, and Union soldiers 
in the Rebel States, Eince the first inauguration of the Rebellion by the Secessionists, who, as a, people, kjy 
claim to all the chivalry, refinement, and gallantry of the hum in race, ( to lot then) tell it;) but whose savuga 
propensities and fixtrotne erneineswa^c never yet had a parallel in the history of savage warfare, much less in 
civil Christian striic. — llaibj Morning Clironicte, IK C, Sept. 1, 1864. 

Orders may be Bent to Thomas L. Wilson, 1'om-fh Auditor's Office, or to C. Ftcrrs, Chief Clork, samo office. 
The Rook will contajn about ffO pages. Price $1.00. 

Mr. Thomas L. Wilson has compiled a mass of valuable and interesting information on the subject of roliol 
barbarities and tb.0 suffering and oppression of Union citizens in the insurgent districts. The facts presented 
are drawn from authentic e.ourcea and worthy of cretli nee. 

lion. J. M. EDMUXDS, Commissioner of General Land Oftce. 

C. STORKS, Esq., Chief Clerk Fourth Auditor's Ojjlce. 
non. D. P. IIOLLOWAY, Cc/mmUHoAerof Tatents. 
lion. GREEN ARAMS, $xth Auditor rf <h,< T,r,,,.ury. 
lion. GEORGE W. McXELLAN, Second Ass't Pbslmasfcr General, 
lion. W. P. ROLE, Co mm issioivr of Indian Ajfairs. 
August 29, 1864.. 

Printed by McGill & Withe-row, for the Union Congressional Committee. 






COPPERHEAD CONSPIRACY 

IN THE 

NOETH-WEST. 



AN EXPOSE OF THE TREASONABLE ORDER OF 
THE "SONS OF LIBERTY." 



V.AJLiLAJSTDIGrHA.lM, Supreme Commander. 



The more effectually to aid the Southern traitors in their ef- 
forts to destroy the Government, many of the leaders of the 
Democratic party in the North, who are in sympathy with such 
efforts, determined to form secret, oath-bound, treasonable asso- 
ciations throughout the Northern States to act in concert with 
those already existing in the States in rebellion. 

In 1863 this order existed in the State of Indiana, under the 
name of " Knights of the Golden Circle," and became subject to 
judicial investigation, as is shown in the following statement of 
the Clerk of the United States District Court for that State : 

I, Watt J. Smith, Clerk of the United States District Court for the Dis- 
trict of Indiana, do hereby certify that the records of said Court establish 
the following facts : 

On the eleventh of February, 1863, the following persons of Morgan 
County were indicted for conspiracy to resist by force of arms the arrest of 
deserters, namely : 

Samuel Dillman, William Dillman, Jacob Groseclose, Andrew J. Perry, 
John Ooldwill, Madison Flake, Mitchel Perry, were tried at the March term, 
1863, by jury, convicted, and each fined five hundred dollars. The proof 
established the fact that the defendants were members of a secret, oath- 
bound organization, then known as the Knights of the Golden Circle ; that 
they fired upon United States soldiers who had in charge two deserters 
who were members of the same order. f 

On the seventh of July, 1863, the following; persons of Boone County 
were indicted for obstructing the draft, namely : Patrick Lee, Patrick White, 
Jeremiah Nichols, John Nichols, Jacob Hill Jeremiah Gleeson, John Dog- 
lass, Eli Goodwin, Conrad Hill, Nathan Curtis, James M. Lucus, Wright 
Sims, William George. Each pleaded guilty, and were fined. 

July eleventh, 1863, the following persons of Putnam County were 
indicted for conspiracy, to oppose the draft, namely : William Randell, John 
Ford, George Ford, Isaac Ford, Alexander Siddons; William Hornmill, 

Printed by the Union Congressional Committee. 
Collected set. 



E4-52 
4- 



George Hanks, George N. Coffinan. These men alleged that they were a 
committee appointed at a meeting to wait upon the enrolling commissioner 
and demand that he proceed no further. The District Attorney dismissed 
the charge of conspiracy, and a verdict of guilty was returned on the charge 
of obstructing the draft, and each were fined. 

Also the following persons, of the same county, were indicted on same 
charge: Joseph Ellis, William Ellis, Isaac Day, William McNary, Francis 
Allen, Conrad Cook. Joseph Ellis was tried on the charge of conspiracy, 
found guilty, and fined five hundred dollars. Verdicts of guilty were ren- 
dered against the others on charge of obstructing the draft. The proof 
clearly established the fact that between seventy-five and one hundred 
armed men (many of them blackened their faces) went to the house of the 
Enrolling Commissioner about midnight and demanded his enrollment 
papers, and obtained and destroyed them. 

The following persons of Monroe County were indicted for obstructing the 
draft: Elmore J. Walker, Joel Morgan, John Graves, John Morgan, Sen., 
Richard J. Walker, Elijah Conder, Henry Crumb, Washington Sares, John 
Butcher, John Morgan, Jr., Abraham May, Peter Fossett, Alexander Smith, 
Drury Kirk, Michael Kirk, Lemuel Sexton, William Whitaker, Preston 
May, Wesley Carter, Thomas Oliphant, John Whitaker ; a verdict of guilty 
was returned against each. 

The defendants, in connection with others, met and surrounded the En- 
rolling Officer, and by force obtained possession of the enrollment papers. 

There have been a great many other convictions and pleas of guilty of 
persons residing in various parts of the State on charges of obstructing the 
Draft. 

The proof, in almost every instance, connected the defendants with a 
secret organization whose objects were shown on the trials to be opposition 
to the execution of the laws of the United States, to the prosecution of the 
war, and friendly to the cause of the rebellion. 

The records of the Court further show that three witnesses who were 
taken before the Grand Jury and refusing to testify, a presentment of the 
facts in each case was made to the Court signed by the foreman of the 
Jury. In answer to a rule entered against each to show cause why they 
did not answer the questions propounded to them by the Grand Jury, they 
and each of them testified before the Court that they could not answer the 
questions proposed without criminating themselves and rendering them- 
selves liable to a criminal prosecution for a violation of the laws of the 
United States, that they were members of this secret order, and could not 
disclose its objects and purposes for the above reasons, and were shielded 
by the Court on the ground that they could not be required to criminate 
themselves. 

The existence of a wide-spread secret order whose purposes are disloyal, 
and at war with the peaceful execution of the law, has been established 
beyond all question by the trials and convictions in this Court, as conclu- 
sively shown by the records. 

In witness of the truth of which, I, as Clerk of the said Court, have here- 
unto set my hand and the seal of the said Court, at Indianapolis, this 
twelfth day of September, a.d. 1864. Watt J. Smith, Clerk. 

It became the duty of General Carrington, the Commander of 
the District of Indiana, to find out the doings of this treasonable 
association ; and, for that purpose, resort was had to the detective 
system, so effectual in the discovery of crime. The result of his 
investigation is given in the following report made by him to 
Governor Morton : 



Headquarters District of Indiana, j 

Northern Department, 
Indianapolis, Ind., June 28th, 18G4. ) 
Governor : In compliance with your request, I place in your hands a 
partial outline of the nature, work, and extent of a disloyal society or order 
now operating in the State of Indiana, under the name of " Sons of Lib- 
erty." 

i. nature of the order. 

1st. It is both civil and military. In its first relation, it declares prin- 
ciples of ethics and politics, for adoption and dissemination, that are hostile 
to the Government of the United States. In the latter relation, it assumes 
to organize armies for " actual service " in support of those principles, treat- 
ing the United States Government as their enemy, and that of the rebellion 
as their friend. 

2d. It is secret and oath-liound. 

od. It is despotic and absolute. The penalties of disobedience to its offi- 
cers are unlimited, including the death-penalty itself. 

II. PRINCIPLES OF THE ORDER. 

1st. Absolute, inherent, State Sovereignty. 

2d. The Union of the States as but voluntary and temporary, and revo- 
cable at the will of any individual State, so far as concerns that State. 

8d. Denies to the General Government the power to enforce its laws, if 
it be the choice of a State to reject them. 

4th. Recognizes the existing rebellion as legitimate, legal, and just. 

5th. Holds revolution against the present Government as not only a 
right, but a duty. 

6th. Holds obligations to the order as paramount, to those due a single 
State, or the United States. 

7th. Declares its purpose to stop this war, treat with rebels, and make 
a treaty based upon the recognition of grades of civilization and race. 

8th. Declares a law of races, one of Caucasian supremacy, and one of 
African servitude. 

9th. Pledges a crusade in favor of all peoples attempting to establish 
n r ew governments of their own choice, as against existing rulers or authori- 
ties. 

10th. Accepts the creed of the rebellion, its logic, its plans, and its prin- 
ciples, as the normal theory of Democracy, and its own bond of coherence 
and ultimate success. 

III. EXTENT OF THE ORDER. 

Exhibits are furnished as follows : 

Exhibit A. " Constitution of Supreme Council of the States," that is, 
of all States that may join, recognizing the primary independence of each 
State. " The Supreme Commander of this Council," is " Commander-in- 
Chief of all military forces belonging to the order, in the various States, 
when called into actual service." — See Sec. 8. 

OFFICERS FOR 1864 AS REPORTED. 

C. L. Vallandigham, of Ohio, Supreme Commander. 

Robert Holloway, of Illinois, Deputy Supreme Commander. 

Dr. Massey, of Ohio, Secretary of State. 

Exhibit B. Constitution of Grand Council of S. L. of Indiana. 

OFFICERS. 

H. H. Dodd, Indianapolis, Grand Commander. 
H. Heffren, Salem, Deputy Grand Commander. 
W. M. Harrison, Indianapolis, Grand Secretary. 



"The members of this Council, additional to the regular officers, include, 
ex officio, the Grand Commander's staff, and all military officers above the 
rank of Colonel."— Sec 0, Art. 2. 

Exhibit C. Constitution of the County Parent Temples, subordinate to 
which Branch County Temples may be organized. 

This order, during 1863, was variously named, but popularly known as 
" K. G. O," Knights of tue Golden Circle, with whose ritual, oaths, etc., 
I furnished you in the spring of 1863. The penalty of disclosure was then 
death, and this penalty was specified in their obligations. 

During the fall of 1863, the order changed name and ritual, and became 
the " 0. A. K.," Order of American Knights ; the ritual, signs, pass- 
words, etc., of which are in my possession. 

At the meeting of this Order, February 16th and 17th, 1864, the Grand 
Commander for the State of Indiana communicated the purposes of the 
Order, as well as the views of C. L. Yallandighain, claimed by the Order as 
its Head and Supreme Commander. 

For said address, the proceedings of the Indiana Grand Council, and so 
much of the official proceedings as it was deemed best to publish for the 
private information of the Order, please see Exhibit D, hereunto annexed. 
This Report gives the following States as organized : 

New-York, New-Jersey, Pennsylvania, New-Hampshire, Connecticut, 
Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Delaware, Maryland, and Missouri. 

Besides the Constitutions of the " S. L." referred to there is a formal 
Ritual for the Degrees, the same being a slight modification of the work of 
the "0. A. K.," which was abandoned only in May last. 

These consist of the " V.," Vestibule of the Temple, and first, second 
and third Temple Degrees or Conclaves. 

The organization of the " Society of the Illini," or Democratic Clubs, 
does not involve full membership in the Order ; for thus far comparatively 
few in each Temple are advanced to the Chapters or Councils of the higher 
degrees, but the lower and subordinate bodies, and that of the " Illini," is 
educational and probationary, looking to full acceptance of the general prin- 
ciples of the order, before the advancement of the "Neophyte," to the 
higher degrees. 

As appears from the official report of February 17th, there were, then, 
only twelve thousand members in this State, and a recent report from a 
portion of the State would hardly triple this number, that is, of initiates, 
though they claim for some counties full battalions, and in a few cases 
full regiments. 

Exhibits F, F, G, and H give the Ritual of said degrees. 

It will be observed that the fundamental password is Calhoun, trans- 
posed for use thus — Nd-oh-lac. 

The unwritten work and lectures of this Order vary in different States 
and counties, and in Temples of the same county, though not in essentials. 
This is accounted for from the fact that organizing agents, in installing 
officers, could not take time to full}'' post and instruct them, and the work 
was imperfectly committed to memory. 

While the penalties of disclosure are formally declared to be such as the 
officeils of this Order shall direct, these penalties are specifically given in 
the verbal lectures and instructions. The oaths of 1S63 specifically affixed 
the death-penalty. The same is enjoined in the present Order. Instruc- 
tions to excute this penalty upon at least one supposed informer have been 
issued within the last two months. Injunctions to arm, and much of the 
detail of subordinate military features of the Order are also given in verbal 
lectures. Concurrent testimony from different sources confirms the above. 
Many of the documents you have already seen, and they are not necessary 
in this report. 



IV. OPERATIONS OF THE ORDER. 

A few facts, derived from many concurrent sources, give significance to 
passages in the Constitutions and Rituals. Of some you were advised at 
the time — thus : 

1st. The outbreaks in Eastern Illinois were mainly checked by leaders of 
this Order, on the ground that such outbreaks were premature. This in- 
formation comes from Canada, Michigan, Illinois, and other quarters. 

2d. A fews days before the attack of Forrest upon Paducah, I was in- 
formed that the Temples of the 0. A. K. in Northwestern Illinois expected 
such an attack, and that Forrest would cross into Illinois, and raise the 
standard of revolt. He came to Paducah, but was repulsed. 

3d. On the day that Morgan first entered Pound Gap, I was informed at 
Indianapolis, in the morning, that Morgan was about to enter Kentucky, of 
which you were at once advised. At three p.m. you showed me a telegram 
from General Burbridge, that Morgan was in the Gap. This information, 
derived from you, was communicated to the secret Order with my permis- 
sion. Upon this, two members of the Order, both prominent — one Colonel 
W. A. Bowles, of Buena Vista notoriety, and the other Judge J. F. Bullitt, 
of the Supreme Court of Appeals of Kentucky— were soon reported to nave 
stated that " Morgan must be stopped ; he was too soon — the Order was 
not ready for him." Judge Bullitt, who had come to receive the new 
Ritual, (S. L.,) took the first train for Kentucky that day. The fact was, 
that Morgan was stopped. The incidents following and attending the visit 
of Major-General Lindsay from Kentucky you are familiar with, and the 
circumstances under which Morgan threw part of his force into Kentucky, 
when General Burbridge moved toward Virginia. 

4th. Information was given you of the visit of Vallandigham to Detroit, 
his projected trip to Chicago, of the meeting of the Grand Council of Indi- 
ana, June 13, of the proposed adjournment and meeting at Hamilton, June 
15, and that Vallandigham's immediate recall was subject of debate, and 
the prospect of his being at that time at Hamilton. At least one rebel offi- 
cer left Windsor, C. W., and visited Hamilton four weeks before, in the 
confidence of disloyal persons, of which I was advised at that time by 
telegraph through General Noble. 

5th. Five days before Morgan attacked Mount Sterling, and the L. and L. 
R. R. was severed, written report was sent by disloyal persons, of which 
I have the originals, that the road was quiet, that " no mules " (U. S. 
soldiers) were on the line, and that a glorious work would begin the 
coming week. 

6th. A courier intercepted between Frankfort and Louisville, who reported 
to me at Louisville, as I was starting for Indianapolis, claimed that Forrest 
was moving upon Southwestern Kentucky, and that a portion of Buckner's 
command would join the fragments of Morgan in Western Virginia. Two 
days after, Forrest defeated Sturgis ; Buckner, however, was west of the 
Mississippi. I give these among many facts to show that there is a close 
correspondence of design and feeling between traitors North and the rebels 
South. The whole plot of the Order herein referred to is in harmony 
with forcible interruption of the war. 

W. A. Bowles, before referred to, has made no close secret of his disloyal 
purposes, and his sympathy with the South. 

He is reported as one of the four Major-Generals of the Order in Indiana. 
The remaining three are L. P. Milligan, of Huntington, Major AValker, of 
northwestern part of Indiana, vice Yeagle removed, and Andrew Hum- 
phreys, of Green county. The Grand Commander has already been named. 

Although the new work, S. L., was obtained at Indianapolis, by R. Bar- 
rett, for Missouri, it is understood that the Order is so far organized in that 
State as to run a risk of disappointment by a change, and that the work of 



6 

the 0. A. K. will retain its usage, as it differs only in non-essentials. 
Among the persons reported as at the conference with Judge Bullitt and 
Barrett, were J. J. Bingham, Dr. Anthon, and Mr. Ristine, of Indianapolis. 
I will also give the names of a few other members for your information, to 
enable you to watch the movement of this Order in Indiana, namely, Dr. Gat- 
ling, (associated with the Gatling Gun,) Mr. Evert, of Vanderburgh, Mr. L. 
Leach, Mr. Otey, Myers of Laporte, Dr. Lemons, A. D. Raga, Mr. McBride, 
of Evansville, John G. Davis, and Lassell, of Cass county. Several of the 
above are delegates to the State Grand Council of Missouri ; and besides, 
II. H. Dodd, to the Supreme Grand Council, to be held at Chicago, the first 
of July next, preparatory to the political convention of July 4. 

V. PURPOSES OF THE ORDER. 

It seems that the main purpose is political power, by union with the 
South, regardless of men or measures. The Eastern and Western Council 
leaders differ as to means to this end ; and, again, the radicals and conserv- 
atives differ, at the West. 

Men like Dr. W. A. Bowles seem indifferent to any presidential canvass, 
and to prefer an early armed rupture and positive union of the Northwest 
with the South. 

Such men are ready and anxious for such an armed invasion as will give 
them a nucleus for open defiance of the United States. This is not specu- 
lation ; but proof is ample. I have adverted to some facts already, and will 
advise you, as I have the Government and General Ileintzelman, as events 
progress. 

Very respectfully yours, 

Henry B. Carrington, 
Brigadier-General, Com'd'g Dist. Indiana, 
His Excellencjr Gov. 0. P. Morton, 
Indianapolis, Indiana. 

Two months after the above report was made, Governor Mor- 
ton was advised that a number of arms and a quantity of fixed 
ammunition had been shipped from New-York to the head of the 
Order at Indianapolis. Notice of tl^e fact was given to the public 
authorities. Mr. Russell, the Deputy Marshal for the city of 
Indianapolis, discloses, in the following affidavit, what afterwards 
took place in relation to the matter : 

State op Indiana, ) 
Marion County. \ 
Before me, James N. Sweetser, a Notary Public within and for the county 
of Marion, State of Indiana, personally appeared John S. Russell, who, 
being first duly sworn, upon his oath, says he is now, and has been for 
more than two years last past, the Deputy Marshal of the city of Indian- 
apolis, State of Indiana ; and further says, that on the twentieth day of 
August, A.D. 186-f, he was sent for by 0. P. Morton, Governor of the 
State of Indiana, and was informed that there was a lot of arms and am- 
munition on the road to Indianapolis addressed to the care of J. J. Parsons, 
whose place of business is in the building occupied by H. II. Dodd, and 
known as the Sentinel Office ; that upon the request of the Governor, he 
proceeded to search, and went to two railroad depots and the office of the 
Merchants' Despatch, and learned that on the fifth day of August, ten boxes, 
marked Hardware by Merchants' Despatch, addressed to Parsons, had al- 
ready been taken away from the Bellefontaine Depot, and charges paid ; 
the gross weight was two thousand four hundred and five pound-; they 
were receipted for on August the twelfth ; on further investigation he 



learned that twenty -two boxes, addressed to the same party, weighing tour 
thousand two hundred and sixty pounds, marked Hardware, were then in 
the Bellefontaine Depot, which fact was immediately reported to the Gov- 
ernor, and the Governor reported to Col. Warner, commanding the Veteran 
Reserve Corps at this place, who thereupon detailed one company to go 
with said Russell and seize said boxes ; in pursuance of which the boxes 
were taken by Russell and said company from the building in which said 
H. H. Dodd & Co. and Parsons were doing business. We proceeded first 
to the Bellefontaine Depot, but the boxes were gone; but on finding the 
drayman, whose name is Henry Ankenbrook, he stated that the boxes 
were delivered at the house above mentioned. We found the twenty two 
boxes in the press-room ; four more in the same room, supposed to be of 
the first lot, in one corner of the room, covered up with old tables and 
boards; and six boxes were found in the second story, piled up behind a 
lot of other boxes filled with was.te-paper and books thrown over them, 
and Parsons name scratched off the boxes. There were three hundred and 
ninety revolvers and one hundred and forty thousand rounds fixed ammu- 
nition in said boxes, which were taken to military headquarters at the Sol- 
diers' Home. The brand of the revolvers was Northway's patent, or some 
similar name, purporting to be made at Middletown, Connecticut. 

John S. Russell, 

Deputy Marshal. 

Subscribed and sworn to" before me, this tenth day of September, A.D. 

1864. 



[Five-cent Revenue-stamp affixed.] 



James N. Sweetsek, 

Notary Public. 



The above shipment was made as " Stationery," as shown on 
the bill of lading, in order to conceal the true contents of the 
boxes ! 

Twenty-two additional boxes of arms, addressed to the same 
person, were subsequently seized in New- York. 

These arms were to have been used by the oath-bound traitors 
for the purpose of driving Union men from the polls at the 
approaching election in Indiana. How far similar desperate ar- 
rangements have been made to control the election in other 
States, is yet unknown. 

That the deliberations of the Chicago Convention were con- 
trolled by the Order of the " Sons of Liberty" no well-informed 
man will deny. During its session, Dr. Olds, a leading member 
(if the Order, an out-spoken traitor, boldly announced that the 
"Sons of Liberty" were in session in the city, and might have a 
communication to present to the Convention before its adjourn- 
ment. 

Vallandingham wrote the platform, which was adopted almost 
unanimously, and it was upon his motion that McClei.lan was 
declared the nominee of the Convention. The essential portions 
of the platform had been previously adopted by the Grand Coun- 
cil of the Order at a meeting held at Indianapolis on the sixteenth 
of February, 1864, as is shown by the following resolution found 
on the secret records of that Order, in the safe of Dodd, the Grand 
Commander for Indiana : 



5. That whatever the theory of the powers of the Federal Government 
to coerce a State to remain in the Union may be, war as a means of restor- 
ing the Union is a delusion, involving a fearful waste of human life, hope- 
less bankruptcy, and the speedy downfall of the Republic. Therefore we 
recommend a cessation of hostilities upon existing facts, and a convention 
of the sovereign Slates to adjust the terms of a peace with a view to the 
restoration of the Union, entire if jwssible ; if not, so much and such 
parts as the affinities of interest and civilization may attract. 

Now read the following corresponding portion of the Chicago 
Platform : 

Resolved, That this Convention does explicitly declare, as the sense of 
the American people, that after four years of failure to restore the Union 
by the experiment of war, during which, under the pretence of a military 
necessity, or war power higher than the Constitution, the Constitution itself 
has been disregarded in every part, and public liberty and private right 
alike trodden clown, and the material prosperity of the country essentially 
impaired, justice, humanity, liberty, and the public welfare demand that 
immediate efforts be made for a cessation of hostilities, with a mew to an 
ultimate convention of all the States, or other peaceable means, to the end 
that at the earliest practicable moment peace may be restored on the basis 
of the Federal Union of the States. 

Compare these resolutions, and no man can doubt their pater- 
nity — they each emanated from the brain of Vallandingham, the 
Grand Commander of the secret and oath-bound conspirators. 

Should the nominee of this secret Order be elected to the Presi- 
dency, his administration will be controlled by the men who 
controlled the Convention, as a consequence certain to follow. 
They will demand, in the language of the platform of their Order, 
" a cessation of hostilities npou existing facts, and a convention of. 
all the sovereign States to adjust the terms of peace, with a view 
to tb.e restoration of the Union, entire if possible ; if not, so much 
and such parts as the affinities of interest and civilization may 
attract.'''' The demand Avill be acceded to by their President, 
notwithstanding the fustian about " a preservation of the Union 
at all hazards," put into his letter of acceptance for the purpose of 
catching votes. That is well understood, or else the oath-bound 
traitors would not now be making every possible effort to attain 
power through his election. 

Are the people willing that such a result, so revolting to every 
feeling of manhood and patriotism, shall thus be accomplished ? 

Every patriot i^ against it. Every soldier in the field is against 
it. The blood of the thousands slain by rebel hands cries from 
the ground against it, and, we fervently believe, the Great Ruler 
of the Universe is against it. 



Print3d by Jolin A. Gray & Green, IN ew- York. 



ISSUES OP THE CONFLICT— TEEMS OF PEACE. 



SPEEC EL 



LLIAM H. SEWARD, 



ON THE OCCASION OF 



THE FALL OF ATLANTA, 

AT AUBURN, SATURDAY, SEPT. 3, 1864. 



My Dear Friends : It is so that I like to see 
you come marching to the time of national airs, 
under the folds of the old national flag. I thank 
you for this hospitable and patriotic welcome. 
It proves that though you deal rigorously with 
your public servants, exacting reasons for their 
policy, energy in their conduct of affairs, and 
explanations for failures and disappointments 
in their administration, yet you are, neverthe- 
less, just, because you willingly allow them to 
rejoice with you, when you have successes, 
victories, and triumphs to celebrate. 

The news that brings us together is authen- 
tic. (A voice — Do you think it is reliable?) 
Yes. Here is a telegram which I received this 
morning from the Secretary of War : " Van 
Duzer reports that Sherman's advance entered 
Atlanta about noon to-day. Particulars not 
yet received. Edwin M. Stanton." (Three 
cheers were given for Atlanta.) 

Now this news comes in a good shape. It 

is pleasant to have a grand result at the first, 

and it protracts the interest of the thing to 

.have particulars coming in afterwards. (Yes, 

yes ; we can wait for the particulars.) 

This victory comes in the right connection. 
It falls in with the echoes of the capture of 
Forts Gaines and Morgan, which I understand 
to be the particulars of Farragut's glorious 
naval battle in the bay of Mobile, a battle 
equaled by no other in American history, but 
the naval achievements of the same veteran ad- 
miral at New Orleans and Port Hudson, and 
all these have no parallel in naval warfare but 
the battles of the Nile and Trafalgar. (A 
voice — I wish we were all Farraguts. ) Well, 
my friend, I know the Admiral well, and I con- 
fess that we all can't be Farraguts. Indeed, 
rery few of us can. But we may take this 
comfort to ourselves, that as a whole people, 
we can appreciate the veterans. We can also 
appreciate Sherman, wh-j Aas performed the 



most successful and splendid march through a 
mountainous and hostile country recorded in 
modern history, and in doing this we show our- 
selves inferior in virtue to no other nation. 

By the way, everybody admired Farragut's 
heroism, in climbing the topmast to direct the 
battle. But there was another "particular" of 
that contest that no less forcibly illustrates his 
heroic character. " Admiral," said one of his 
officers, the night before the battle, "won't you 
consent to give Jack a glass of grog in the 
morning, not enough to make him drunk, but 
just enough to make him fight cheerfully." 
"Well," replied the Admiral, "I have been to 
sea considerable, and have seen a battle or two, 
but I never found that I wanted rum to enable 
me to do my duty. I will order two cups of 
good coffee to each man at two o'clock, and at 
eight o'clock I will pipe all hands to breakfast 
in Mobile Bay." (Hurrah for Farragut.) And 
he did give Jack the coffee, and then he went 
up to the masthead and did it. 

The victory at Atlanta comes at the right 
place. The rebellious district is in the shape 
of an egg. It presents equal resistance on its 
whole surface. But if you could break the 
shell at either of the two ends, Richmond and 
Atlanta, the whole must crumble to pieces. 
While Sherman, under Grant, has been striking 
the big end, Meade, under Grant, has been 
striking just as hard blows upon the lesser 
end. The whole shell will now be easily 
crushed, for it has grown brittle with the ex- 
haustion of vitality within. 

This glorious victory comes in good time for 
another reason. Just now we are calling upon 
you for three hundred thousand more men — 
volunteers, if you will, drafted men if we 
must — to end the war. You were getting a 
little tired of long delays and disappointed ex- 
pectations. In Indiana, a portion of the peo- 
ple, instigated by rebel plotters at the Clifton 



H4 ' I £> 



House, in Canada, were importing British re- 
volvers in boxes which passed the Custom- 
house as stationery, under pretense of arming 
to defend themselves, but really to resist the 
draft and bring the Government down to ruin 
through a subordinate and auxiliary civil war 
in the West. True, no arms have been im- 
ported here. Yet delegates went out from 
among you, and sat down in council at Chicago, 
with those Indiana conspirators, and agreed 
with them not only that this importation of 
arms should be defended in the election can- 
vass, but also to demand the cessation of the 
war, upon the ground that success in restoring 
the Union is unattainable. Already, under the 
influence of the cheering news from Atlanta, 
all this discontent and this despondency have 
disappeared. We shall have no draft, because 
the army is being reinforced at the rate of five 
Or ten thousand men per day by volunteers. 
(Hurrah for the volunteersi) May I not add 
that this victory at Atlanta comes in good time, 
as the victory in Mobile Bay does, to vindicate 
the wisdom and energy of the war administra- 
tion. Farragut's fleet did not make itself, nor 
did he make it. It was prepared by the Secre- 
tary of the Navy ; and he Wiat shall record the 
history of this war truthfully and impartially, 
will write, that since the days of Carnot no 
man has organized war with ability equal to 
that of Stanton. (Cheers for Stanton, cheers 
for the Secretary of the Navy.) 

But auspicious as the occasion is, it has, 
nevertheless, failed to bring out some whom 
we might have expected here. Why are they 
not here to rejoice in magnificent vietories that 
will thrill the hearts of the lovers of Freedom 
throughout the world. Alas, that it must be 
confessed, it' is party spirit that holds them 
aloof. All of them are partisans. Some are 
Republicans who cannot rejoice in the national 
victories, because this war, for the life of the 
Nation, is not, in all respects, conducted ac- 
cording to their own peculiar radical ideas and 
theories. They want guarantees for swift 
and universal and complete emancipation, or 
they do not want the nation saved. Others 
stay away because they want to be assured that 
in coming out of the revolutionary storm, the 
ship of state will be found in exactly the same 
condition as when the tempest assailed it, 
or they do not want the ship saved at all ; 
as if anybody could give such guarantees in the 
name of a people of thirty millions. Others 
are Democrats. They received from their 
fathers the axiom that only Democrats could 
save the country, and they must save it by 
Democratic formulas and combinations which 
the progress of the age has forever exploded. 
They cannot come up to celebrate achievements 
which condemn their narrow and hereditary 
bigotry. 

Others, of both the Republican and Demo- 
cratic parties, are willing that the nation shall 
be saved, provided that it shall be done by 
some of their chosen and idolized chiefs, which 
chiefs they mutually denounce and revile. 



They cannot honor Grant and Sherman and 
Granger and Farragut and Porter and Winslow, 
because by such homage they fear that Fre- 
mont's and McClcllan's fame may be eclipsed. 

Nevertheless, there are enough here of the 
right sort, (Yes — that's true,) enough of men 
who once wore Republicans, but who, taking 
that word in a partisan sensjwarc Republicans 
no longer, and men who onelflVore Democrats, 
but who, taking that word in its narrow appli- 
cation, are Democrats no longer. All of these 
are now Union men, because they found out at 
the beginning of this tremendous civil war, .or 
at some period in its progress, that no man — no 
party — no formula — no creed could save the 
Union, but that only the people can save it, 
and they- can save it only by ceasing to become 
partisans, and becoming patriots and Union 
men. (Cheers for the Union.) 

Yes, my friends, when this war shall have 
•nded,in the restoration of the Union, no man 
then living will exult in the recollection that 
during its continuance he was either a Radical 
or a Conservative, a Republican or a Democrat, 
but every man will then claim to have been 
throughout an unreserved and unconditional 
Union man. 

But why should party spirit, especially at 
this juncture, divide the American people? 
And why should I, a member of the Executive 
Administration, allude to it on such an occasion 
as this? The answer is at hand. The Consti- 
tution of our country commands that Adminis- 
tration to surrender its powers to the People, 
and the People to designate agents to asume 
and exercise them four years. You receive the 
Executive Government in a condition very dif- 
ferent from what it was when committed to our 
care, and highly improved. We found it prac- 
tically expelled from the whole country south 
of the Delaware, the Ohio, and the Missouri, 
with the most of the army and navy betrayed 
or fallen into the hands of the insurgents, and 
a new and treasonable Confederacy with the 
indirect but effective co-operation of foreign 
Powers, establishing itself on the Gulf of Mex- 
ico. We cheerfully give the Government back 
to you with large and conquering armies, and 
a triumphant navy, with the hateful Confed- 
eracy falling into pieces, and the rebellious 
States, one after another, returning to their 
allegiance. 

Regarding myself on this occasion, therefore, 
not as a Secretary, but simply as one of the 
people, I, like you, am called by my vote to de- 
termine into whose hands the precious trust 
shall now be confided. We might wish to avoid, 
or at least to postpone that duty, until the 
present fearful crisis is passed. But it cannot 
and it ought not to be avoided or adjourned. It 
is a Constitutional trial, and the nation must 
go through it deliberately and bravely. 

I shall, therefore, cheerfully submit, for your 
consideration, the course which I have conclu- 
ded to adopt, and the reasons for it. 

First, I beg you to remember, that the pres- 
ent is no common or customary Presidential 



election. It occurs in the midst of civil war, 
arising out of a disputed succession to the Ex- 
ecutive power. Disputed successions are the 
most frequent causes of civil wars, not only in 
Republics, but even in Monarchies. A dispute 
about the succession of the President, periodi- 
cally begets an abortive or a real revolution, in 
each one of- the Spanish and American Repub- 
lics. So the disputed succesiion of the Spanish 
throne, begot tL^fmeniorable thirty years' war, 
which convulsed all Europe. A dispute whether 
Juarez was the lawful President, brought on the 
present civil war, with the consequence of 
French intervention in Mexico. A dispute 
whether the present king of Denmark, who suc- 
ceded to the throne hist winter, is lawful heir to 
the Duchies of Schleswig and Holstein, brought 
about tie civil war in that country, which, 
through German intervention, has just now 
ended with the dismemberment of the Danish 
kingdom. It is remarkable also, that civil 
wars produced by disputed successions, invari- 
ably begin with resistance by some one or 
more of the States or provinces which consti- 
tute the kingdom, empire, or republic which is 
disturbed. It was so with the united States of 
Mexico. It was so in the united States of Co- 
lumbia, and the case was the same in the 
united States of Venezuela. Now it is certain 
that in 18G0 we elected Abraham Lincoln, law- 
fully and constitutionally, to be President of 
the whole United States of America. Seven 
of the States immediately thereon rushed into 
disunion, and, summoning eight more to their 
alliance, they set up a revolutionary govern- 
ment. They levied war against us to effect 
a separation and a distinct sovereignty and 
independence. 

We accepted the war in defense of the Union. 
The only grievance of the insurgents was that 
their choice of John C. Breckenridge for Pres- 
ident was constitutionally overruled in the elec- 
tion of Lincoln. They rejected Lincoln, and 
set up a usurper. The executive power of the 
United States is now, therefore, by force, practi- 
cally suspended, between that usurper, Jefferson 
Davis, and that constitutional President Abra- 
ham Lincoln. The war is waged by the usurper 
to expel that constitutional President from the 
Capital, which in some sort is constantly held 
in siege, and to conquer the States which loy- 
ally adhere to him. The war is maintained on 
our side to suppress the usurper, and to bring 
the insurgent States back, under the authority 
of the constitutional President. The war is at 
its crisis. It is clear, therefore, that we are 
fighting to make Abraham Lincoln President 
of the whole United State's, under the election 
of 1860, to continue until the 4th of March, 
1865. In voting for a President of the United 
States, can we wisely or safely vote out the 
identical person whom, with force and arms, 
we are fighting into the Presidency ? (No, No.) 
You justly say, No. It would be nothing less 
than to give up the very object of the war at 
the ballot-box. Themoral strength which makes 
our loyal position impregnable, would pass 
from us, and when that moral strength has 



passed away, material forces are no longer 
effective, or even available. By such a pro- 
ceeding we shall have agreed with the enemy, 
and shall have given him the victory. But in 
that agreement the Constitution and the Union 
will have perished, because when it shall 
have once been proved that a minority can by 
force or circumvention, defeat the full- acces- 
sion of a constitutionally chosen President, no 
President thereafter, though elected by ever so 
large a majority, can hope to exercise the Exec- 
utive powers unopposed throughout the whole 
country. One of two things must follow that fatal 
error. Either a contest between your newly- 
elected compromise President, and the same 
usurper, in which the usurper must prevail, or 
else a combination between them, through which 
the usurper or his successor, subverting your 
Constitution and substituting his own, will be- 
come President, King, or Emperor of the United 
States, without foreign aid, if he can, with for- 
eign intervention if necessary. (That's so.) 
To be sure it's so ; nothing is more certain than 
that either the United States and their Consti- 
tutional President, or the so-called Confederate 
States, and their usurping President, must rule 
within the limits of this Republic. I therefore 
regard the pending Presidential election as in- 
volving the question, whether, hereafter, we 
shall have our Constitution and our country 
left us. How shall we vote, then, to save our 
country from this fearful danger? (Vote Lin- 
coln in again.) You have hit it exactly, my 
friend. We must vote Lincoln in again, and 
fight him in at the same time. If we do this, the 
rebellion will perish and leave no root. If we 
do otherwise, we have only the alternatives of 
acquiescence in a perpetual usurpation, or of 
entering an endless succession of civil and so- 
cial wars. Upon these grounds, entirely irre- 
spective of platform and candidate, I consider 
the recommendations of the Convention at Chi- 
cago, as tending to subvert the Republic. (It's 
so, that's a fact.) 

It will seem a hard thhrg 1 when I imply, that 
a party, like the Democratic party, can either 
mediate or inconsiderately adopt measures, to 
overthrow the Republic. All experience, how- 
ever, shows that it is by the malice or the mad- 
ness of great parties that Free States have been 
brought down to destruction. You often hear 
alarms that a party in power is subverting the 
State, and it sometimes happens so. But nine 
times out of ten, it is a party out of power, 
that in Its impatience or its ambition over- 
throws a Republic. 

The Democratic party, of course, leaving off 
the Loyal Union Democrats, opposed the 
election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860. In doing 
so, they divided and organized in three columns. 
One a treasonable column of State-Rights-Dis- 
union Democrats under Breckinridge. A second, 
a loyal northern column, under Douglas. The 
third a loyal but conciliatory flying column, 
under John Bell, who has since joined the in- 
surgents. We thereupon invited the two loyal 
columns to combine with the Republican party 
to oppose the disunion Democratic column. 



They declined. On the eve of the election of 
1860, I told the followers of Douglas and of 
Bell, that when the election should have closed, 
they would find they had inadvertently favored 
disunion and rebellion. They persisted, and 
the attempted revolution came. Disunion then 
presented itself, in the practical form of pre- 
■ venting Abraham Lincoln from assuming the 
Executive authority, (and it stands before us 
in exactly the same form now.) Thus the Dem- 
ocratic party produced that calamity, the South- 
ern Democrats acting from design, the Northern 
Democrats passive through inadvertence. The 
disputed succession still remains unadjusted. 
A new election has come ou. For a time, the 
Northern Democrats, with notable exceptions, 
gave a more or less liberal support to the Gov- 
ernment against the Democratic insurgents of 
the South. But the same Democratic forces 
which operated in the election of 1860, now 
appear, in the political field, with positions and 
policy unchanged since that time, as I think, 
except for the worse. The Southern Democracy 
is still in arms under the usurper at Richmond. 
The Douglas and Bell columns consoli- 
dated, are found at Chicago, and all three of 
the parties are compassing the rejection of 
Abraham Lincoln, the constitutional President 
of the United States. They agree not only in 
this attempt, but they assign the same reasons 
for it — namely, that Abraham Lincoln is a 
tyrant. 

They agree, also, that the real usurper at 
Richmond is blameless, and pure, at least the 
Richmond Democracy affirm it, and the Chicago 
Democracy do not gainsay it. To me, therefore, 
the Democracy at Richmond and the Democj 
racy at Chicago, like Caesar and Pompey, seem 
to retain all their original family resemblance. 
They arc very much alika — especially Pompey. 
But it is not in mere externals that their simi- 
larity lies. They talk very much alike, as I 
have already shown you. When you consider 
that among the Democrats at Chicago, the In- 
diana Democrats were present, who have import- 
ed arms to resist the national authority and 
defeat the national laws, and that all the Dem- 
ocrats there assembled agreed to justify that 
proceeding, I think you will agree with me 
that the Richmond Democrats and the Chicago 
Democrats have lately come to act very much 
alike. 

I shall now go further and prove to you that 
they not only have a common policy, and a 
common way of defending it, but they have 
even adopted that policy in concert with each 
other. You know that when the Chicago Con- 
vention was approaching in July last, George 
N. Sanders, Clement C. Clay, and J. P. Holcombe 
appeared at the Clifton House, on the Canada 
baok of the Niagara river, fully invested with 
the confidence and acquainted with the pur- 
poses of Jefferson Davis and his confederates at 
Richmond. You know, also, that Chicago Dem- 
ocrats resorted there in considerable numbers, 
to confer with these emissaries of Jefferson 
Davis. Here is the fruit of that conference, 
and no one can deny the authenticity of my 



evidence. It is extracted from the London 
Times, the common organ of all the enemies of 
the United States. The New York correspon- 
dent of the London Times, writing from Niagara 
Falls, under date of August 8, says : 

Clifton House has become a center of negotiations be- 
tween the Northern friends of peace anil Southern agents, 
which propose a withdrawal of differences from the arbi- 
trament of the sword. The correspondent then goes on to 
explain that an effort is to he made to nominate a candidate 
for the Presidency on the platfornrVt an armistice and a 
Convention of States, and to thwart, by all possible means, 
the efforts of Mr. Lincoln for re-election. 

Mark now, that on the 8th of August, 1864, 
Northern Democrats and Richmond agents 
agree upon three things to be done at Chicago. 

Namely : 1st. A withdrawal of the differ- 
ences between the Government and the insur- 
gents from the arbitrament of the sword. 2d. 
A nomination for President of the United States, 
on a platform of an armistice, and ultimately 
a convention of the States. 3d. To thwart, by 
all possible means, the re-election of Abraham 
Lincoln. 

Such a conference, held in a neutral country, 
between professedly loyal citizens of the Uni- 
ted States and the agents of the Ptichmond 
traitors in arms, has a very suspicious look. 
But let that pass. Political elections must be 
free, and therefore they justly excuse many ex- 
travagancies. We have now seen what the 
agents of Pompey and Cassar agreed at Niagara 
that Pompey should do r.t Chicago. Here is 
what lie actually did: 

Resolved, That this Convention does explicitly declare, 
as the sense of the American people, that after four years 
of failure to restore the Union by the experiment of war, 
during wbirii, under the pretense of a military necessity or 
war power higher than the Constitution, the Constitution 
itself has been disregarded in every part, and public liberty 
and private right alike trodden down, and the material 
prosperity of the country essentially impaired, justice, hu- 
manity, liberty and the public wrllare demand that Imme- 
diate efforts be made for a cessation Of hostilities, with a 
view to an ultimate Convention of all the States, or other 
peaceable means, to the end that at the earliest practicable 
moment peace may bo restored on the basis of the federal 
Union of the States. 

The Democracy at Chicago did there just, 
what had been agreed upon with the Richmond 
agents at Niagara, namely, they pronounced for 
an abandonment of the military defense of the 
Union against the insurgents, with a view to 
an ultimate National Convention, and the de- 
feat of the election of Abraham Lincoln. That 
is to say, they proposed to eject Abraham Lin- 
coln from the Presidential Chair at Washing- 
ton, on the 4th of March next, and at the same 
time leave the usurper, Davis, unassailed, se- 
cure and unmolested in his seat at Richmond, 
with a view to an ultimate Convention of 
States, which that usurper's constitution will 
allow no one of the insurgent States to enter. 
What now, if there be no convention at all, or 
if the convention fail to agree on a submission 
to the Federal authority ? Jefferson Davis then 
remains iu authority, his Confederacy estab- 
lished, and the Union with all its glories is 
gone forever. Nay, more, if such a thing could 
happen as that the Chicago candidate, nomi- 
nated upon such an agreement, should be 
elected President of the United States on the 



first Tuesday of November next, who can vouch 
for the safety of the country against the rebels 
during the interval which must elapse before 
the new Administration can constitutionally 
come into power ? It seems to me that such an 
election would tend equally to demoralize the 
Union and to invite the insurgents to renew 
their efforts for its destruction. 

It remains for me now only to give you the 
proof, that although the way in which the Chi- 
cago Democracy did what had been agreed 
upon in their behalf at Niagara, was not alto- 
gether satisfactory, yet what they actually did 
was accepted as a full execution of the previ- 
ous compact: 

St. Catharines, C. W., Sept. 1. 
To lion. D. Wier, Halifax : 

Platform ana Presidential nomineo unsatisfactory. Vice- 
l'r< ,-i'lent and speeches satisfactory. Toll l'uiluinoi'o not to 
oppose. 

(Signed) GEO. N. SANDERS. 

D. Wier is a Richmond accomplice at Hali- 
fax, and Philemore is understood to be the con- 
ductor of the insurgent organ in London. 

Here, then, we have a nomination and a 
platform which were made by treaty formally 
contracted between the Democratic traitors at 
Richmond, and the Democratic opposition at 
Chicago, signed, sealed, attested, and delivered 
in the presence of the London Times, and already 
ratified at Richmond. ("By Heaven, we've 
got 'em.") Got them, to be sure you've got 
them, my friends. They say I am always too 
sanguine of the success of national candidates 
and of the national arms. But it seems to mo 
that the veriest croaker in all our loyal camp 
will take new courage, and become heroic when 
he sees that the last hope of the rebellion hangs 
upon the ratification of this abominable and 
detestable compact by the American people. 

Yes, you have got them; but how did you 
get them? Not by any skill or art of the Ad- 
ministration, or even through the sagacity or 
activity of the loyal people, but through the 
cunning of the conspirators overreaching itself, 
and thus working out their own defeat and 
coufusion. They do say that the father of evil 
always indulges his chosen disciples with* such 
an excess of subtlety, as to render their ultimate 
ruin and punishment inevitable. 

And what a time is this to proclaim such a 
policy, conceived in treachery, and brought 
forth with shameless effrontery. A cessation 
of hostilities on the heel of decisive naval and 
land battles, at the very moment that the rebel- 
lion, without a single fort in its possession on 
the ocean, or on either of the great rivers or 
lakes, is crumbling to the earth, and at the 
Bame time a dozen new ships of war are going 
to complete the investment by sea, and three 
hundred thousand volunteers are rushing to 
the lines, to complete the work of restoration 
and deification. 

There is a maxim which thoughtful teachers 
always carefully inculcate. It is that incon- 
stancy is imbecility, and that perseverance is 
necessary to insure success. This maxim was 
set forth in the form of a text in the writing- 
book, when I was young : " Perseverance always 



conquers." Even infantile beginners encoun- 
tered the instruction in the form of a fable in 
Webster's spelling book. Tho story was, that 
after using soft words and tufts of grass, the 
farmer tried what virtue there was in stones, 
and by persistence in that application, ho 
brought the rude boy who was stealing apples 
down from the treo, and made him ask the 
farmer's pardon. Our Chicago teachers tell us 
that just as the rude boy is coming down, we 
must lay down the stones and resort again to tho 
use of grass, with the consequence, of course, 
that the farmer must beg pardon of the tres- 
passer. 

But what makes this Chicago policy mora 
contemptible, and even ridiculous, is that it is 
nothing different from the policy with which 
the same parties now contracting actually 
ushered in disunion in 18G1, in the closing 
hours of the Administration of James Bu- 
chanan. Yes, my dear friends, when we of 
this Administration came into our places in 
March, 1861, we found there existing just the 
system which is now recommended at Chicago, 
namely : 1st, a treasonable confederacy in arms 
against the Federal authority ; 2d, a truco 
between the Government of the United States 
and the rebels, a veritable armistice, which 
was so construed that while the National ports 
and forts were thoroughly invested along the 
sea-coast and rivers by the insurgents, they 
could be neither reinforced, nor supplied even 
with food, by the Government ; 3d, A languid 
debate with a view to an ultimate National Con- 
vention, which the rebels haughtily ^iespised 
and contemptuously rejected. What were the 
alternatives left us ? Either to surrender our- 
selves and the Government at discretion, or to 
summon the people to arms, terminate the arm- 
istice, adjourn the demoralizing debate, and 
" repossess " ourselves of the National forts 
and ports. All agreed that this course was 
right then. And now has all the treasure that 
has been spent, and all the precious blood that 
has been poured forth, gone for nothing else 
but to secure an ignominous retreat, and return 
at the end of four years to the hopeless imbe- 
cility and rapid process of national dissolution, 
which existed when Abraham Lincoln took into 
his hands the reins of Government. 

Every one of yoj^ know, that but for that 
accession of Abraham Lincoln, just at that time, 
the Union would, in less than three months, 
have fallen into absolute and irretrievable ruin. 

I will not dwell long on the complaints which 
misguided, but not intentionally perverse men, 
bring against the Administration of Abraham 
Lincoln. They complain of military ai-rests of 
spies and lurking traitors in the loyal States, 
as if the Government could justify itself for 
waiting without preventive measures, for more 
States to be invaded or to be carried off into 
secession. They complain that when we call 
for volunteers, we present the alternative of a 
draft, as if when the ship has been scuttled, 
the captain ought to leave the sleeping passen- 
gers to go to the bottom without calling upon 
them to take their turns at the pump. 



They are not content with plotting sedition 
rn secret places, but they go up and down the 
public streets uttering treason, vainly seeking 
to pVovoke arrest, in order that they may com- 
plain of a denial of the liberty of speech. The 
impunity they everywhere enjoy under the pro- 
tection of constitutional debate, shows at one 
and the same time, that their complaints are 
groundless, and that the Union in the element 
of moral stability is stronger than they know. 

The chief complaint against the President is, 
that he will not accept peace on the basis of the 
integrity of the Union, without having also the 
abandonment of slavery. When and where 
have the insurgents offered him peace on the 
basis of the integrity of the Union? Nobody 
has offered it. The rebels never will offer it. 
Nobody on their behalf can offer it. They are 
determined and pledged to rule this Republic 
or ruin it. I told you here a year ago, that 
practically slavery was no longer in question — 
that it was perishing under the operation of the 
war. That assertion has been confirmed. The 
Union men in all the slave States that we have 
delivered are even more anxious than we are to 
abolish slavery. Witness Western Virginia, 
Maryland, Missouri, Louisiana, Tennessee, and 
Arkansas. Jefferson Davis tells you in effecl 
the same thing. He says that it is not slavery, 
but independence and sovereignty for which he 
is contending! There is good reason for this. 
A hundred dollars in gold is only a year's pur- 
chase of the labor of the working man in every 
part of the United States. At less than half 
that prioe you could buy all the slaves in the 
country. Nevertheless, our opponents want a 
distinct exposition of the President's views on 
the ultimate solution of the slavery question. 

Why do they want it? For the same reason 
that the Pharisees and Saddueees wanted an 
authoritative solution of the questions of casuis- 
try which arose in their day. One of those 
sects believed in a kingdom to come, and the 
other altogether denied the resurrection of the 
dead. Nevertheless, they walked together in 
loving accord in search of instruction concern- 
ing the spirit world. " Master," said they, 
" there was a man of our nation who married a 
wife and died, leaving six brothers. These 
brothers successively married the widowed wo- 
man, and afterwards died. £ And last of all the 
woman died also. In the resurrection, which 
of the seven shall have this woman to his wife." 

Now what was it to them whether one or all 
should have the woman to wife in Heaven. It 
could be nothing to the Saddueees in any case. 
What was it to any human being on this side of 
the grave ? What was it to any human being in 
heaven except the woman and her seven hus- 
bands — absolutely nothing. Yet they would 
have an answer. And they received one. The 
answer was that while in this mortal state, men 
and women shall never cease to marry and to 
die, there will be in the resurrection neither 
death nor marrying: or giving in marriage. 

Although altogether unauthorized to speak 



for the President upon hypothetical questions, 
I think I can give an answer upon the subject 
of slavery at the present day — an answer which 
will be explicit, and I hope not altogether un- 
satisfactory. While the rebels continue to 
wage war against the Government of the United 
States, the military measures affecting slavery, 
which have been adopted from necessity, to 
bring the war to a speedy and successful end, 
will be continued, except so far as practical 
experience shall show that they can be modified 
advantageously, with a view to the same end. 

When the insurgents shall have disbanded their 
armies, and laid iloion their arms, the war will in- 
stantly ceaxe — and all the war measures then exist- 
ing, including those which affect slavery, will cease 
also; and all the moral, economical and political 
questions, as icell questions affecting slaver;/ as 
others, which shall then be existing, between indi- 
viduals, and States, and the Federal Government, 
whether they arose before the civil war began, or 
whether they grow out of it, will, by force of the 
Constitution, pass over to the arbitrament of courts 
of law, and to the councils of legislation. 

1 am not unsophisticated enough to expect 
that conspirators, while yet unsubdued, and 
exercising an unrestricted despotism in the 
insurrectionary States, will either sue for or 
even accept an amnesty based on the surrender 
of the power they have so reckless^ usurped. 
Nevertheless, 1 know that if any such conspira- 
tor should tender his submission upon such 
terms, that he will at once receive a candid 
hearing, and an answer prompted purely by a 
desire for peace, with the maintenance of the 
Union. On the other hand, I do expect propo- 
sitions of peace with a restoration of the Union, 
to come, not from the Confederates in authority, 
nor through them, but from citizens and States 
under and behind them. And I expect such 
propositions from citizens and States to come 
over the Confederates in power, just so fast as 
those citizens and States shall have delivered 
themselves or shall have been delivered by the 
Federal arms, from the usurpation by which 
they are now oppressed. All the world knows, 
that & far as I am concerned, and, I believe, 
so far as the President is concerned, all such 
applications will receive just such an answer 
as it becomes a great, magnanimous and hu- 
mane peope, to grant to brethren, who have 
come back from their wanderings, to seek a 
shelter in the common ark of our national 
security and happiness. 

The sun is setting. So surely as it shall rise 
again, so surely do I think that the great events 
we have now celebrated prelude the end of our 
national troubles, and the restoration of the 
national authority with peace, prosperity, and 
freedom throughout the whole land, from the 
lakes to the gulf, and from ocean to oceas. 

And so I bid you good night ; and majrGod 
have you, with our whole country, always in 
his holy and paternal keeping. 

Enthusiastic cheers were given at the conclu- 
sion of the speech. 



THE PLATFORMS. 



Read and Contrast. — Rote the demand made 
in the Union platform that the Union must be 
restored, the Constitution maintained, the Laws 
enforced and the Ballot-box respected. And 
observe how, in the hour of Victory, when an 
unconditional surrender to these just demands 
is undoubted, if we but remain firm, the Dem- 
ocratic platform demands that we ground our 
arms and beg of rebels to return to the Union 
and grant us peace. 

The following declaration of principles was 
adopted by the great National Union Conven- 
tion which nominated Abraham Lincoln for 
President, and Andrew Jounson for Vice-Pres- 
ident, at Baltimore, on the Yth of June last,- 

Resolved, That it is the highest duty of every American 
citizen to maintain against all their enemies the integrity 
ef the Union, and the paramount authority of the Consti- 
tution and Laws of tho United States; and that, laying 
aside all differences of political opinions, wo pledge our- 
soItcs as Union men, animated by a common sentiment, 
and aiming at a common object, to do everything in our 
power to aid the Government in quelling by force of arms 
the rebellion now raging against its authority, and in bring- 
ing to tho punishment duo to their crimes tho rebels and 
toaitors arrayed against it. 

Resolved, That we approve tho determination of the Gov- 
ernment of the United States not to compromise with rebels 
nor to offer aay terms of peace exceept such as may be based 
upon an "unconditional surrender" of their hostility and a 
return to their just allegiance to tho Constitution and laws 
of the United States, and that wo call upon the Govern- 
ment to maintain this position and to prosecute tho war 
■With the utmost possible vigor to tho complete suppression 
Of the rebellion, and in full reliance upon the self-sacrifice, 
tho patriotism, the heroic valor, and tho undying devotion 
Of the American peoplo to their country and its free insti- 
tutions. 

Resolved, That as slavery was the causo, and now consti- 
tutes the strength of this rebellion, and as it must be 
always and^verywhero hostile to tho principles of repub- 
lican go vegment, justice and tlio national safety demand 
its utter ai» complete extirpation from the soil of the re- 
public, and that we uphold and maintain the acts and 
(| proclamations by which the Government, in its own de- 
fence, has aimed a death-blow at this gigantic evil. We 
Me in favor, furthermore, of such an amendment to the 
Constitution, to be made by tho people in conformity with 
its _ provisions, as glial' terminate and forever prohibit the 
exigtonee of slavery within the limits of tho jurisdiction of 
tlm United States. 



Resolved, That tho thanks of tho American people are 
due to the soldiers and sailors of tho army and navy, who 
have perilled their lives in defense of their country, and in 
vindication of the honor of the flag; that the nation owes 
to them some permanent recognition of their patriotism 
and valor, and ample and permanent provision for those of 
their survivors who have received disabling and honorable 
wounds in the service of their country; and that the mem- 
ories of those who have fallen in its defence shall bo held 
in grateful and everlasting remembrance. 

Resolved, That wo approve and applaud tho practical 
wisdom, the unselfish patriotism, and unswerving fidelity 
to the Constitution and tho principles of American liberty, 
with which Abraham Lincoln has discharged, under cir- 
cumstances of unparalleled difficulty, the great dutie's and 
responsibilities of the Presidential office; that we approve 
and indorse, as demanded by tho emergency and essential 
to tho preservation of tho nation, and as within tho Con- 
stitution, tho measures and acts which he has adopted to 
Ui tend tho nation against its open and secret foes; that wo 
approve especially the proclamation of emancipation, and 
tho employment as Union soldiers of men heretofore held 
in slavery ; and that we have full confidence in his deter- 
mination to carry these and all other constitutional meas- 
ures essential to tho salvation of tho country into full and 
complete effect. 

Resolved, That wo deem it essential to the general wel- 
fare that harmony should prevail in tho national councils, 
and wo regard as worthy of public confidence and official 
trust those only who cordially indorse tho principles pro- 
claimed in these resolutions, and which should characterize 
tho administration of tho Government. 

Resolved, That the Government owes to all men employed 
in its armies, without regard to distinction of color, tho 
full protection of the laws of war, and that any violation of 
these laws or of tho usages of civilized nations in tho time 
of war by the rebels now in arms, should bo made tho sub- 
ject of full and prompt redress. 

Resolved, That tho foroign immigration, which in the 
past has added so much to tho wealth and development of 
resources and increase of power to this nation, the asylum 
of tho oppressed of all nations, should be fostered and en- 
couraged by a liberal and just policy. 

Resolved, That wo are in favor of tho speedy construc- 
tion of tho railroad to tho Pacific. 

Resolved, That the national faith, pledged for the re- 
demption of the public debt, must be kept inviolate ; and 
that for this pufposo we recommend economy and rigid 
responsibility in tho public expenditures, and a vigorous 
and just system of taxation; that it is the duty of every 
loyal Stato to sustain tho credit and promote tho use of the 
national currency. 

Resolved, That we approve the position takon by the 
Government that the people of the United States never re- 
garded with indifference tho attempt of any European power 
to overthrow by force or to supplant by fraud, tho institu- 
tions of any republican government on the western conti- 
nent, and that they view with extreme jealousy, as menacing 
to the peace and independence of this our country, the 
efforts of any such power to obtain new footholds for mon- 
archical governments, sustained by foreign military force, 
in near proximity to the United States. 



The Democratic National Convention which 
gathered at Chicago on the 29th of August, 
and presented the names of George B. Mc- 
Cleslan for President, and George H. Pen- 
dleton for Vice-President, agreed on and 
adopted the following 

PLATFORM. 

Resolved, That in the future, as in the past, wo will ad- 
here with unswerving fidelity to the Union under tho Con- 
stitution as the only solid foundation of our strength, 
security, and happiness as a people, and as a framework of 
governmentoqually conducive to the welfare and prosperity 
of all tho States, both Northern and Southern. 

Resolved, That this Convention does explicitly declare, 
as the sense of tho American people, that, after four years 
of failure to restore the Union by tho experiment of war, 
during which, under tho pretense of a military necessity 
or war power higher than tho Constitution, tho Constitu- 
tion itself has been disregarded in every part, and public 
liberty and private right alike trodden down, and the ma- 
terial prosperity of tho country essentially impaired, justice, 
humanity, liberty, and the public welfare demand that im- 
mediate efforts bo made for a cessation of hostilities, with 
a view to an ultimato'Convention of all tho States, or other 
peaceablo means, to tho end that at tho earliest practicable 
moment peace may he restored on tho basis of the Federal 
Union of tho States. 

Resolved, Thaf tho direct htlcrferenco of tho military 



authority of tho United States in tho recent elections held 
in Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri and Delaware, was a shame- 
ful violation of tho Constitution, and tho repetition of such 
acts in the approaching election will be held as revolution- 
ary, and resisted with all tho means and power under our 
control. 

Resolved, That the aim and object of tho Democratic 
party is to preserve the Federal Union and the rights of tho 
States unimpaired ; and they hereby declare that they con- 
sider tho Administrative usurpation of extraordinary and 
dangerous powers not granted by the Constitution, the sub- 
version of tho civil by military law in States not in insur- 
rection, the arbitrary military arrests, imprisonment, trial, 
and sentence "f Amcrioan citizens in States where civil law 
exists in full force, the suppression of freedom of speech 
and of tho press, tho denial of tho right of asylum, the 
open and avowed disregard of State rights, the employment 
of unusual test-oaths, and the interference with and denial 
of tho right of tho people to bear arms, as calculated to 
prevent a restoration of tho Union and the perpetuation of 
a Government deriving its just power from tho consent of 
the governed. 

Resolved, That tho shameful disregard of the Adminis- 
tration to its duty ,in respect to our fellow-citizens who 
now and long have been prisoners of war in a suffering 
condition, deserves tho severest reprobation, on the score 
alike of public interest and common humanity. 

Resolved, That the sympathy of tho Democratic party 
is heartily and earnestly extended to the soldiery of our 
army, who are and have been in tho field under tho flag of 
our country; and, in the event of our obtaining power, 
they will receive all the care and protection, regard and 
kindness, that the brave eoldiere of the Kepublio have so 
nobly earned. 



i ; 



PRINTED AND STEREOTYPED BY McGILL k WITHEROW, WASHINGTON, T>. C. 



"FOE THE GREAT EMPIRE OF LIBERTY, FORWARD!" 



SPEECH 

OF 

MAJ.-GEN. CARL SCHURZ, 

OF 'WISCONSIN", 

DELIVERED AT CONCERT HALL, PHILADELPHIA, 

ON 

FRIDAY EVENING, SEPTEMBER 16, 1864. 



Fellow-Citizens : In times like these, when 
the passing events of every day cast eve-r-vary- 
ing lights and shadows upon our situation, when 
our minds are tossed from fear to hope, from 
despondency to exultation, and back again to 
doubt, it is necessary that we should now and 
then fix our eyes firmly upon those things and 
ideas which, through all the vicissitudes of the 
hour, must serve as immovable and permanent 
points of direction. 

The affairs of this country have evidently ar- 
rived at a crisis. We are engaged in a war for 
the restoration of the Union. The Union is not 
yet restored, but we hear the cry of Peace. 
The desire of peace is not peculiar to any so- 
cial division or political party — it is cherished by 
all. But the question, What is peace, and how 
is it to be restored ? this is the question to be 
solved by a vote of the people in November. 
Upon this question the mind of every conscien- 
tious citizen ought to be made up, whatever 
events to-day or to-morrow may bring. This 
question once irrevocably auswered by the voice 
of the people, the future of the country is decid- 
ed for ever. 

The advocates of peace we can divide into 
four great classes : 

First. The rebels themselves ; they desire 
peace on the basis of separation and a final dis- 
solution of the Union. 

Second. A large number of influential men in 
foreign countries, especially in England and 
France, who affect to believe that the war is 
hopeless on our part, and urge us to consent to 
peace on the basis of separation ; and who also 
urge foreign governments to intercede for that 
purpose. 



Third. A numerous political party in the 
loyal States, who advocate, partly, peace at any 
price ; partly, the offering of concessions and 
compromise to the rebels ; but who all express 
the desire that the war shall cease. 

Fourth. The great Union party, who advo- 
cate peace on the basis of the restoration of 
the Union, and a full and complete vindication 
of the authority of the Government, and the 
employment of all the means which the object 
may demand. 

It seems, then, that " peace " is a word of 
wide meaning, and before using it as a political 
rallying-cry, we ought to be careful to ascertain 
and define its true significance. 

The conditions upon which the rebels offer 
peace we all know. It is the recognition of 
their independence ; it is the cession of all the 
States originally belonging to their Confederacy, 
with the addition of Maryland, Kentucky, and 
Missouri and the District of Columbia ; the ces- 
sion of all the Territories west of the Confeder- 
ate States to the Pacific, and probably some di- 
vision of the public property in the hands of 
the Government at the commencement of the 
war. It may be doubted whether modesty is 
one of their virtues. They may indeed be ex- 
pected to yield a point or two. (Applause.) 
Although our people seem to have made up 
their minds about those propositions, there are 
many persons abroad, and a few among us, who 
believe in the possibility of peace on the -basis 
of disunion. In England there are men who 
seem quite amazed and indignant that we should 
refuse to treat upon such reasonable conditions. 

Permit me a l'apid glance at the two decisive 
questions — first, Whether a settlement can be 



Printed by the Union Congressional Committee. 



made on that basis ? and second, Whether this 
settlement would lead to a durable peace ? 

What shall be the boundary-line ? The 
Rocky Mountains would not be too high, nor 
the great lakes too broad, as a barrier between 
two powers exasperated by bitter feuds. But 
the only natural frontier we can find is the line 
of the Ohio and Potomac. Can we concede 
that ? South of it there are two States that re- 
mained true to the Union during the war, Ken- 
tucky and West- Virginia. If we might agree 
to let the original seceders go, could we be base 
and treacherous enough to sell our friends, to 
deliver them helpless to the tender mercies of 
their mortal enemies '? — for the rebels hate the 
Union people of the slave States more bitterly 
even than they hate Massachusetts, Can we 
abandon them ? Impossible ! What if the 
rebels do not yield that point '? If we are 
obliged to fight for Kentucky and West-Vir- 
ginia ? Well, then, we can just as well fight 
for the whole Union, the war may go on, and 
there is the end of the settlement. ' (Applause.) 
But suppose the rebels agree to that territorial 
arrangement. Then the second question arises, 
Will this settlement have the necessary ele- 
ments of stability ? To the Confederacy it will 
be distasteful. As in Kentucky and West-Vir- 
ginia the majority stood by us, so a strong mi- 
nority stood by the rebels, and the same moral 
obligations which bind us to the first bind them 
to the second. The result will be this : the 
minority in Kentucky and West-Virginia will 
unite with the restless and reckless element in 
the Confederacy to precipitate the latter into 
warlike enterprises for the recovery of the two 
States, and Hie authorities' of the ConTeQeracy 
will not long be able to resist. Does this Look 
like a solid peace? So much for the South. 

But can the settlement be satisfactory or^even 
endurable to the North? Remember that the 
supposed boundary-lines will leave the lower 
course and the mouth of the Mississippi in the 
hands of the Confederacy. A foreign power 
holding the mouth of the Mississippi ! In the 
earlier stages of our history it was regarded as 
a self-evident truth that such power must be or 
become our natural enemy. But if at that 
time, when the great Mississippi Valley was a 
silently brooding wilderness, it was thought that 
we must have the mouth of the river, because 
the foreign hand that held it might choke our 
future development, what shall we say now 
when the Mississippi Valley has become the 
garden of America, the seat of empire ? The 
matter is hardly a fit subject for discussion. 
The Mississippi is the great harbor of the Gulf 
of Mexico ; it is the Atlantic Ocean ramified 
thousands of miles into the heart of the Conti- 
nent. Its great port is not New-Orleans alone ; 
it is St. Louis, it is Cincinnati, and the great 
cities that will spring up on the upper river and 
along the course of the gigantic Missouri. And 
the mouth of the Mississippi in the hands of a 
foreign power ? Let it be so, and half our in- 
dependence is gone. (Applause.) Indeed, free- 
dom of commerce on the great river might be 
stipulated by treaty. But what of that ? Will 
not the South, whenever any question of inter- 
national dispute arises, be able to force us to 



any concession or to an offensive war merel ? r.j 
suspending the operation of the treaty, and by 
tightening its grasp upon the great outlet ? Is 
not this as if some person were constitutionally 
permitted to have his grip upon your throat, 
able and ready, whenever he wants any thing of 
you, to stop the circulation of your blood merely 
by squeezing a little ? And this humiliating sit- 
uation any body expects our active, enterprising, 
spirited, and brave people to endure ? The dis- 
cussion of this possibility would be a mere 
waste of words. The people of the United 
States have bought the mouth of the Missis- 
sippi, once with their money and twice with 
their blood. (Great applause.) To give it away 
would be merely to produce the necessity of 
buying it a fourth time. Can the South yield 
it ? No. Can the North do without it ? No. 
And then ? 

I might go on to show how the proximity of 
dangerous neighbors immediately on our bor- 
ders — of neighbors whose guns command our 
very capital, and who hold the natural outlet of 
the most productive part of our country — would 
at once oblige us to be in constant readiness for 
attack and defence ; how large standing armies 
would swallow up the financial resources we 
might otherwise devote to the payment of our 
national debt ; how the first success of a seces- 
sion movement would inevitably draw similar 
attempts at dismemberment after it ; how the 
minds of the people would be continually agi- 
tated by conspiracies and treasonable enter- 
prises; how all this would steadily undermine 
our liberal institution by producing a centraliza- 
tion of power; how military necessity would 
become a standing and commanding element in 
our political life, and gradually transform the 
republic of peace into an engine of war; but 
it is enough. 

It must be clear to every candid mind, that a 
settlement on the basis of disunion, far from 
securing a permanent peace, will be nothing but 
a mere temporary armistice, and must, after a 
short trial, produce the strengthened conviction 
in the minds of our people, that for the peace, 
liberty, and prosperity of the North-American 
continent, the restoration of the Union is an 
absolute necessity. (Great applause.) And 
what then ? The war will be resumed. But 
under what circumstances ! Now we fight the 
South alone, as a legitimate government fights a 
rebellious combination ; then we shall have to 
fight a recognized, fully organized, and im- 
mensely strengthened Confederacy, with her 
European cotton allies at her heels. Now we 
have the Mississippi ; we have the most import- 
ant points on the Atlantic coast ; we have the 
great central position of East-Tennessee ; we 
have the heart of Georgia. We shall give up 
all this, merely for the privilege of paving every 
foot of that road again with our dollars and of 
sprinkling every inch of it again with the blood 
of our people ! (Great applause.) my 
good friends in England and France ! do you 
not think, after all, that while we are at it, 
it will be wisest and most economical for us to 
go through with it ? You, who affect such a 
holy horror of war and bloodshed, do you not 
think, after all, that it will be a saving of blood 



and calamity if we persevere in a war of which 
we can see the end, instead of running into one 
that will be interminable ? 

Pardon me for devoting so much time to a 
subject upon which your convictions are set- 
tled. Such arguments may also be lost upon 
the pcaee-clamorers in France and England. 
But it might be well, perhaps, for them to know 
that our people can see no peace but in Union, 
and that their efforts to persuade us to the con- 
trary will indeed fail of their object, but will 
certainly confirm us in the' suspicion that they 
may love peace well, but would love the perma- 
nent dismemberment of this Republic better. 
(Applause.) 

Peace with disunion being impossible, it is 
necessary, then, if for the sake of peace alone, 
that the Union should be restored. And how 
can it be restored ? Either by the voluntary or 
the forced submission of the rebels to the law- 
ful authority of the ' Government. This leads 
us to the third class of peace-makers. There 
is a party among us which pretends that it can 
secure the voluntary submission of the rebels, 
and thus restore peace. Its policy is defined by 
the following resolution adopted by its National 
Convention : 

'■'■Resolved, That this Convention does ex- 
plicitly declare as the sense of the American 
people, that after four years of failure to re- 
store the Union by the experiment of war, dur- 
ing which, under the pretense of a military ne- 
cessity or war-power higher than the Constitu- 
tion, the Constitution itself has been disregard- 
ed in every part, and public liberty and private 
right alike trodden down, raid the material 
prosperity of the country essentially iffitjmred, 
justice, humanity, liberty, and the public wel- 
fare demand th it immediate efforts be made for 
a cessation of hostilities, with a view to an ulti- 
mate Convention of all the States, or other peac- 
able means, to the end that, at the earliest 
practicable moment, peace may be restore<l on 
the betsis of the Federal Union of the Slates.'" 

This policy is to be practically carried out if 
that party should be intrusted with the powers 
of the Government, of which it seems rather 
confident, inasmuch as it explicitly declares 
" that such is the sense of the American peo- 
ple." I apprehend " the American people " 
will claim the privilege, of thinking about this 
matter, and will.explicitly declare their sense in 
due time. (Great applause and laughter.) 

The resolution contains two positive and defi- 
nite and one rather indefinite proposition. The 
two definite propositions are these : First, that 
the experiment of war as a means of restoring 
the Union is a failure — this is a clear and posi- 
tive statement — and second, that immediate ef- 
forts must be made for a cessation of hostili- 
ties. This is positive also, and, as a sequence 
of the first proposition, cau not mean any thing 
else but that the experiment of war must be 
stopped and abandoned. Here ends the clear 
and positive part of the programme. The 
third, indefinite proposition is, that the war 
must be stopped "with a view to an ultimate 
Convention of all the States, or other peaceable 
means," etc. Mark the words, " with a view 



to ; " this looks to a future period not yet de- 
termined, and is rather foggy. 

The first two propositions can be carried into ef- 
fect by the Democratic party, if it should be the 
sense of the American people to place that party 
in power. It can declare, and to make good its 
declaration, it can make, the war a failure ; and 
it can also stop the war. But the carrying out 
of the third proposition requires the coopera- 
tion of Jefferson Davis and the rebellious peo- 
ple of the seceded States. A Convention of 
the loyal States the Democratic party can have, 
but a Convention of all the States, with a view 
to the restoration of peace on the basis of the 
Federal Union, can not be had, unless such be 
the sense of Jefferson Davis and the States in 
rebellion. And if such be not the sense of 
Jefferson Davis and the Southern Confederacy, 
what then? That the Chicago platform saith 
not. But this is just the point the American 
people should like to know. This is no idle 
question; it is just the question upon which 
the whole matter hinges. For, mark you well, 
the resolution does not say, " We demand a 
cessation of hostilities on condition that a Con- 
vention of all the States, or some other peace- 
able means, by which the Union can be restor- 
ed, be agreed to ; if not, we shall continue the 
war;" but the demand of a cessation is posi- 
tive on the ground that the experiment of war 
has proved a failure ; the war is to be stopped 
on the demand of justice, humanity, liberty, 
and the public welfare, with a view to some- 
thing that may or may not happen. I ask 
again, What if it does not happen ? What if 
Jefferson Davis takes your cessation of hostili- 
ties with a view to laugh at your Convention 
and other peaceable means to restore the Un- 
ion ? And this he is most likely, nay, almost 
certain to do, for peace without the condition 
of reunion is just what he wants, and a Con- 
vention and reunion is just what he docs not 
want. Well, what then ? Will ;: tacitly ac- 
quiesce in the establishment of the Southern 
Confederacy ? How can yo'u, since you tell us 
that you are faithful to the Union? Or will 
you resume the war ? How can you, since you 
declare that the experiment of war has proved 
a failure, and that "justice, humanity, liberty, 
and the public welfare" demand its cessation? 
What, then, in the name of common-sense, will 
you do ? Here we look upon a jumble of con- 
tradictions so glaring that our heads begin to 
reel, and we wonder how it could happen to 
the whole wisdom of a great party in solemn 
convention assembled to hatch out so bottom- 
less an absurdity. (Laughter and applause.) 

The gentlemen who come with so amazing a 
proposition before the country will, indeed, tell 
us that Jefferson Davis and his people may 
agree to terms of peace on the basis of the Un- 
ion. Pray, where did they obtain then- infor- 
mation ? We have some means of ascertaining 
the sentiments of the rebel government and of 
those men who make public opinion in that 
part of the country. We have the official 
enunciations of their chiefs; we have the say- 
ings of their public speakers ; we have their 
public papers ; we have a large quantity of in- 



formation from private sources published in the 
newspapers of Our States. All these things are 
before the people ; every body that has eyes 
may see, and that has ears may hear them. And 
now I appeal to any man that, has kept the run 
of the times, did he ever see or hear the least 
indication of a willingness on the part of the 
rebel government or their leading men even to 
consider the proposition of a Convention or 
other peaceable means looking to the restora- 
tion of peace on the basis of reunion ? Is it 
true, or not, that public sentiment in rebeldoni, 
as far as we have means of knowing it, may be 
fairly summed up in what one of their newspa- 
pers said, that, if we presented to them a white 
sheet of paper with the signatures of our au- 
thorities at the bottom of it, on which they, the 
rebels, might write their own conditions of re- 
union, they would scorn to accept it? Do we 
not hee.r this repeated daily in numberless vari- 
ations? Did they not ridicule and vilify in the 
most contemptuous manner certain Northern 
Democrats who pretended that th-y could nego- 
tiate a reunion on the basis of a compromise? 

But this is not the only test of the matter. 
The rebel; know full well that any offer of 
terms on their part, nay, the mere indication in 
the press of a willingness on their part to come 
back, would materially contribute to increase 
and inflame the divisions now existing among 
us; they know that a' half-way offer of a com- 
promise would be a good stroke of policy for 
them ; and now, did you ever hear any one of 
their public men who could speak with any 
thing like authority admit even the idea that 
such a thing was possible? Why, even the 
celebrated peace-adventurers at Niagara Falls, 
who certainly meant mischief and nothing but 
mischief, said in their final winding-up letter 
that they had not the remotest intention of en- 
tertaining any proposition looking to reunion. 
And they and their friends in the North might 
certainly have made capital out of such a thing. 
And even Mr. Benjamin, in his late dispatch to 
Mr. Mason, while evidently laboring to give his 
Northern friends as much comfort as possible., 
could not refrain from stating most emphatical- 
ly that the recognition of the independence of 
the Confederacy was a condition sine qua non 
for all peace negotiations. Why is this ? Be- 
cause a public man of standing in the Confed- 
eracy can not afford even to appear friendly to 
the idea of reunion under any circumstances. 
And yet, in the face of all this, with all this 
evidence before them, knowing all this, the 
men of the Chicago Convention dare to hold 
out to the American people the promise that 
the rebels will agree to a Convention of all the 
States or other peaceable means by which the 
Union can be restored. And upon an hypothe- 
sis so wild, upon an assumption so willful, an 
assumption so completely without the least 
shadow of a foundation, they advise us to stop 
the war with a view to a thing they know they 
can not effect. They dare to advise you to in- 
cur all the disadvantages a cessation of hostili- 
ties would involve for a chance which they 
themselves do not believe in! 

This is more than absurdity ; or, if you will 
Still call it so, this absurdity is a symptom of 



somethiug else than a mere confusion of ideas ; 
it speaks of purposes that dare not avow them- 
selves; of designs that need a disguise; of 
schemes that shun the light. (Applause.) Well 
might the open allies of the rebellion among 
us, the Yallandighams, the Longs, the Woods, 
the Seymours, the Harrises, the Pendletons, 
cast their votes for such a resolution ; for a vir- 
tual abandonment of the war without a condi- 
tion sine qua van, only with a view to a thing 
which, as they must know, will never be effect 
ed'in this way. what else can it lead to than a 
tacit recognition of Southern independence ? I 
understand the satisfaction with which open 
rebel sympathizers look upon their work ; they 
indeed did take a candidate not their first 
choice, but they endeavored to gag and bind 
him, mouth and hand and foot, and although 
they could not defeat him by placing him upon 
such a platform, they have at least disgraced 
him. (Applause.) But what I can not under- 
stand is, that those men who indeed desire 
peace, but also sincerely believe in the necessi- 
ty of restoring the Union, should permit them- 
selves to be taken in by so clownish a juggle, 
by so transparent a fraud. It is for them that I 
will discuss the matter in its whole length and 
breadth. 

Suppose, then, the party which passed this 
resolution is raised to power. The first official 
act to which it stands pledged by its platform 
will be to propose to Jefferson Davis an imme- 
diate cessation of hostilities. The proud 
Southron, at once recognizing his old friends, 
will forthwith remember that they stand pledg- 
ed to stop the war, because they consider it a 
failure; to stop it in the name of jusiiee and the 
public welfare. He will at once feel himself, 
and in fact be, master of the situation. Know- 
ing all this, he will say : " Certainly, hostilities 
shall be stopped ; you have only to negotiate 
with me as the head of an independent Confed- 
eracy, (see Benjamin's letter;) you have only 
to withdraw your armies from Southern soil ; 
you have only to take away your navy from 
Southern ports ; you have only to raise the 
blockade of our coast, and hostilities are 
stopped. Then you will have to dismiss the 
negro soldiers from your military service ; and 
as to the matter with a view to which you pro- 
pose to cease hostilities, we will see about that 
' at the first practicable moment.' " 

I am at once met by an outcry from the De- 
mocratic side : " We shall never do that — 
never!" You will not? Are you not the 
same men who pledged yourselves in the Chi- 
cago platform to stop the war, because it was a 
failure — to stop it on the score of justice, hu- 
manity, liberty, and the public welfare, merely 
with a view to a thing which, as you well know, 
will never happen, unless the rebels be forced 
to it — and now cry War ! war that is a fail- 
ure, war that is against justice and what all ? 
But, you say, we did not mean it so. Why, 
then, did you say it so? (Laughter.) But do 
you really know what you will do ? Let me 
see who you are, and I will tell you what you 
are capable of doing. You are the same men 
who, from 1848 to 18(50, went the whole dis- 
graceful way from the Wilmot Proviso to the 



Lecompton Constitution, from free soil to the 
forcing of slavery upon free soil, protesting at 
every stopping-place, by all that is good and 
great, that you would not go a single step fur- 
tin:-. (Laughter and great applause.) And 
you will have us believe that you are not going 
to do this or that ! Did you know what you 
were going to do when you went into the Chi- 
cago Convention ? How many of you are 
there who would not have sworn upon their 
sacred honor that they would never vote for a 
resolution like that which was passe-:! — and did 
they not do it ? I tell you in the face of your 
protestations and those of your candidate, you 
permit yourselves once to be infatuated with 
the idea that you can coax and buy the rebels 
back into the Union by concession, and what- 
ever they may ask of you, you will do it, for it 
is only the first step that costs — and surely, 
Jeifersou Davis will not spare you, for his foot 
is too familiar with the becks of his old North- 
ern friends. (Great applause.) The old silly 
cry, " Do not irritate the South ! do not irritate 
it by the blockade! do not irritate it by the 
armed negroes! " (laught t, ) will again have its 
old sway ; your desires and delusive hopes will 
give birth to the most obsequious schemes, and 
soon you will be in a state of mind of which it 
will be difficult to say where folly ends and 
where treason begins. 

Still, I will give you the full benefit of your 
protestations. I might describe the ruinous ef- 
fect the temporary withdrawal of our armies, or 
even the temporary raising of the blockade, 
would have upon the futare chances of the war; 
how hundreds of French and English . 
would fly into Savannah and Wilmington with 
arms and ammunition and clothing and railroad 
iron and machinery, and othev things handy to 
have ; how those ships would fly out again load- 
ed with cotton ; how, upon the value of that 
cotton, the Confederate loan would find hew 
buyers and their wretched finances would look 
up ; how the whole fighting capacity of the South 
would receive a new and tremendous impulse. I 
might describe all that, but I will forbear. 

There are two measures which, in case of their 
accession to power, the Chicago party would 
most certainly execute. Victims to that most 
ridiculous of all mental diseases, the negropho- 
bia, they would dismiss our two hundred thou- 
sand negro soldiers ; and yielding to that most 
pernicious of all passions, demagoguism, they 
would give up the idea of a conscription. Will 
they not ? I dare any one of their public men, 
I dare their candidate, I dare the most bellicose 
of their partisans — I dare them to say that they 
will not do so. And the consequences V With 
one hand they will deplete and weaken the army, 
and with the other they will throw away the 
means of filling it up and strengthening it. 
Take two hundred thousand negro soldiers from 
the garrisons and posts they are guarding, take 
two hundred thousand white soldiers from At- 
lanta and Petersburgh to fill the places left va- 
cant by the negroes, and I call upon any milita- 
ry authority in this country to say : Will it, or 
will it not, be impossible for our two great arm- 
ies, under Grant and Sherman, to hold the field ? 



"Retreat! retreat!" v-n\M be the cry; and 
it is, perhaps, with a view t-> this contingency 
that the Chicago Convention has sell cted Its disr 
tinguished candidate. (Long continued appla 
Do not speak of rapidly filling the vacuum with 
new recruits ; for you give up the conscripti in, 
and i apprehend your friends in Indiana and Il- 
linois and Ohio, your Sons of Liberty and Am .- 
ican Knights, will be rather slow to rush to the 
field with their imported revolvers. | Laughter.) 
Far from being able to Strengthen our 
you will rather weaken, dishearten, ami demor- 
alize what remains of it. The soldiers witness- 
ing with disgust these senseless and ruinous pro- 
ceedings', suspicion ami distrust would creep into 
the ranKsj and the brave boys, woul I lose half 
of their strength by losing thi ' ce and 

faith. 

And then, indeed, the " cessation of hostili- 
ties" would acquire a new aspect. Unable to 
keep the field, far from 1; ling able to offer an 
armistice, you might find yourselves obliged to 
approach the rebel chief hat in hand to beg for 
one; and surely, if he shod 1 have the con- 
temptuous magnanimity to '.',, he would 
hardly spare your feelin i ditions. 
Is that the cessation of hostilities you desire ? 
It is certainly the cessation of hostilities the reh- 
ire. This kind of armistice will at least 
one advantage: it will save you the trouble 
of discussing what . conditions you will or will 
not propose"; The rebels will take that trouble 
oif your hands. (Laughter and applause.) But, 
seriously and soberly speaking, I deem the op- 
position of the Woods and Vallandighams to 
iiiee a most rash and ill-ad- 
vised m ■■•. ittie ; for, if they let him only act 
upon til idiosyncrasies, the common 
prejudices and impulses of the party, he will as 
certainly and safely ruin the prospects of the 
war as they themselves might have done with 
their ingeniously devised cessation of hostilities, 
which offers to the rebels that which they de- 
sire, together with the privilege of refusing that 
which we desire. The one is a military way of 
doing it, the other a civil one ; the one is " strat- 
egy" the other diplomocy ; and I candidly think 
the difference is not worth quarreling about. At 
all events, it would be well for the peace men to 
set a good example by keeping peace among 
themselves. (Laughter and applause.) 

But I will follow the advocates of the Chica- 
go peace platform into the farthest recesses of 
their argument, which we find, not in their reso- 
lutions, but in their papers. 

They tell us, that while the rebel government 
is for war, the Southern people are for peace ; 
and that we therefore must appeal from the 
rebel government to the Southern people. Cer- 
tainly a good idea. But how carry it Out ? The 
number of peace men in the South is undoubt- 
edly large. They may fairly lie divided into two 
classes: first, Secessionists on principle, who are 
for peace only because they are tired of the war ; 
and second, Union men on pri ici] le, who are for 
peace on the basis of reunion, 
es undoubtedly comprise a large mimber of peo- 
ple, but probably not strong enough to control 
the rebel government; for" if tlmy are strong 



/ 



enough to do so, why do they not do it ? Our 
Chicago men say we must strengthen them. 
Certainly, but how ? 

Why do the secessionists who are for peace 
offer no effective opposition to the rebel govern- 
ment ? Because, though indeed sick of the wax, 
they would like to have separation along with 
peace. Then it is evident they are not yet tired 
enough of the war. The remedy is simple. We 
must carry on the war with such terrible energy 
as to make all rebeldom tremble and shake. 
That will make them so tired of the war, that 
after a while they will only be too happy to 
make peace at any price. Is not that clear ? 
(Applause.) Now for the Union men in the 
rebel States. There are undoubtedly many of 
them ; all the blacks and a large number of 
whites. Why do they not exercise any decisive 
influence in reb Mom. Because the rebel .gov- 
ernment is ton strong for them, and keeps them 
down. What is the remedy? It is simple. We 
must break the strength of the rebel gover 
by dealing it as heayy,blows as we can strike. 
That will give the Union men air to breathe, 
and fi'i lorn a,ction. Is not this common- 
sense ? (Applause.) 

But how the secessionists who are tired of the 
•war can be made Unionists by stopping the war 
for humanity's sake ; or how we can aid the 
Union men, who can not stir, because the rebel 
government is too strong for them, by giving 
the same rebel government a chance to become 
still stronger — that, I suspect, it will take the 
•whole logic and eloquence in Chicago Conven- 
tion assembled to make intelligible to an intelli- 
gent people. (Great laughter and applause.) 

The whole wisdom of the intricate peace poli- 
cy of the Chicago party may Ire fairly summed 
up as follows : You are struggling with a high- 
wayman who has robbed you of your valuables. 
You are stronger than he, and about to over- 
come him. Suddenly you stop, and say: "Now, 
my good fellow, I will struggle no longer ; I see 
it is a failure on my part ; to struggle longer 
would be against justice, humanity, and our 
common welfare ; I let you go, with a view to 
meet you again, and to persuade you to give me 
back, at the most practicable moment, what you 
have stolen." Is not this Bedlam ? (Tremen- 
dous laughter and applause.) 

But now I arrive at a feature of this business 
which places its true character in still clearer 
light. It is well known that some of the lead- 
ing powers of Europe, with whom we are in 
most immediate contact, affect to believe in, be- 
cause they desire, the final dissolution of this 
Republic. Whatever motives you may assign 
for this fact — the competition growing from our 
spirit of commercial enterprise, jealousy of our 
constantly growing strength, hatred of our re- 
publican institutions — call it what you will, the 
fact is too thinly disguised to escape recogni- 
tion. Still, I wish you to understand,, in speak- 
ing of the tendencies of some of the political 
and commercial interests of I! France, 

it is far from me to cast a slur upon the noble 
nations of those countries ; for I sincerely be- 
lieve the cause of universal liberty in this coun- 
try has no truer friends abroad than they are. 

At present, the so-called Confederacy is a 



mere association of political bodies engaged in 
a rebellion against their legitimate Government. 
They are indeed recognized as belligerents, but 
not admitted into the family of nations as an in- 
dependent and equal member. Foreign pdwerg, 
however desirous of making separation perma- 
nent, yet hesitate to enter into open relations 
and cooperation with the Confederacy ; first, be- 
cause our Government maintains with firmness 
the justice of our cause, and its inflexible reso- 
lution to bring baek the rebellious States ; and 
secondly, because the stigma of slavery rests 
upon the rebellion, and European governments 
have some respect for public opinion in their 
own countries, and for the enlightened judgment 
of mankind. But is it reasonable to suppose 
that they will refrain from doing so when they 
will have a plausible pretext '? They would, no 
doubt, be most glad to see us do for them what 
they are ashamed to do for themselves. As 
you, in times gone by — and I hope gone by for 
ever — were required to do for the slaveholder 
the dirty work he deemed below his dignity to 
do for himself — catch his runaways — so foreign 
powers would rather like you to perform for 
them a hardly cleaner work, which they them- 
selves feel much delicacy about — recognize as 
an independent power a Confederacy founded 
upon the corner-stone of slavery. (Great ap- 
plause.) "Oh!" you say, "they will have to 
wait for that." Will they, indeed ? Here is 
the Chicago platform, declaring explicitly as the 
sense of the American people that the war is a 
failure and must be stopped. The war declared 
a failure in the eyes of the whole world ; and 
not only that, but that it must fie stopped on 
the score of "justice, humanity, liberty, and the 
jmblic welfare." And this you cry into the ears 
of England and France, who merely wait to hear 
you say so ! Have not our enemies in those 
countries always advocated the recognition of 
the Confederacy on the ground that the war, on 
our part, was hopeless, unjust, inhumane, tyran- 
nical, and ruinous ? With what delight the 
London Herald and the London Times will hail 
this declaration ! With what triumph they will 
point to it ! Is it not admitting all, all they 
have been contending for — hopelessness, injust- 
ice, inhumanity, tyranny, ruin, all ? And now, 
if the American people should be so lost to all 
sense of shame and decency as to indorse this 
declaration at a national election, with what face 
will you stand up before England and France, 
and ask them not to recognize the Confederacy? 
If this war is indeed what you affirm — a failure, 
and hopeless, unjust, inhumane, and ruinous — 
would it not be an act of mercy, of justice, of 
humanity, to step in and stop it ? And do you 
not, by this most infamous declaration, invite 
them to do so ? I will prove to you that this is 
no mere offspring of my imagination. Some 
time agp, Lord Lyons wrote to his Government 
an official dispatch, in which the following pas- 
'■ri-urred : 
"Sever/nl of the leaders of the Democratic 
party soui/ht interviews with me, both before and 
after the arrival of the intelligence of Gen. 
McClellan's dismissal. The subject uppermost 
in their minds, while they were speaking to me, 
was natural!'! that of foreign mediation between 



North and South. Many of them seemed to 
think that this mediation must come at last ; 
but they appeared to be afraid of its doming 
too soon. It was evident that they apprehended 
that a premature proposal of foreign interven- 
tion would afford the Radical party a means of 
reviving the violent war spirit, and thus of 
defeating the powerful plans of the Conserva- 
tives. They appeared to regard the present 
moment as peculiarly unfavorable for such an 
offer, and, indeed, to hold that it would be es- 
sential to the success of any proposal from 
abroad that it should be deferred until the con- 
trol of the Executive Government shoidd be 'in 
the hands of the Conservative pterty ." 

So far Lord Lyons. 

Foreign powers having at last found and 
seized upon a pretext for officially meddling with 
our difficulties, sticb. as your invitation would 
give them — and, indeed, remembering Lord 
Lyons's significant dispatch, this seems to be part 
of the Chicago programme — we shall see the 
working of a new agency in the affairs of this 
continent ; an agency which, fortunately, was 
unknown to us as long as the country was one ; 
and that agency is foreign influence. 

The same reasons for which England and 
France desired the breaking up of this union, 
the same reasons will also impel them to do all 
they can to make separation permanent, and the 
whole of their influence, powerful as it will 
be — for the Confederacy will necessarily lean 
upon her European friends — will be thrown 
against reunion. That influence will indeed be 
powerful, for it will not only extend to the Gov- 
ernment, but it will at once run through all tin 1 
channels of trade. And now is there any body 
credulous enough to believe, that against such 
fearful odds you can carry out the timid scheme 
with a view to which you mean to stop the 
war ? Foreign influence, once admittted, as it 
will be by this policy, will have the casting vote 
in all that pends between us and the South. 
We shall not have two great powers on this 
continent, but four, and all but one bitterly 
against reunion. Divide and rule, is the old 
saying ; but not those will rule that are divided. 
(Applause.) Whatever our ultimate decision 
may be after such developments, whether to 
resume the war at once, or to acquiesce in sep- 
aration, and then, after a short breathing spell, 
launch into the confusion of a new conflict, 
there is one thing certain: we shall find the 
South so immensely strengthened, that if for a 
people like ours any task could be hopeless, 
this would be hopeless indeed. 

And in the same measure as the South will 
be strengthened by this Chicago policy, so we 
shall be weakened. I have already alluded to 
the demoralization and disintegration of our mil- 
itary strength by its effect. But that is not all. 

At present the enlightened opinion of the 
liberal masses of Europe is on our side. That 
opinion may in a crisis prove strong enough to 
bridle the action of governments. How can 
we expect that opinion to be true to us, if we 
are treacherous to ourselves ? With what face 
can we demand its generous support, if we con- 
fess a failure and throw doubt upon the justice 
and humanity of our own cause ? You have 



heard of the people of Germany pouring their 
gold lavishly into the treasury of the United 
States. (Applause.) You have heard of a loan 
of a thousand millions having been offered, and 
being now in progress of negotiation. Would 
those people who are standing by us so gener- 
ously in our embarrassments, would they have 
done so, if they did not trust in our ability and 
determination to carry through the war V And 
now they are told by a party that boast of being 
about to grasp the reigns of government, that 
the war is a failure, and being 1 a failure, and 
being unjust, inhumane, and ruinous, must be 
given up. You, who are so clamorous about 
the condition of our treasury, do you call that 
raising our credit abroad, do you call that help- 
ing our finances out of a distressed condition? 
Truly, if it were your avowed object to reduce 
the Government to total impotency for want of 
means, to render the nation incapable of a vig- 
orous movement, to lay it prostrate in utter 
isstiess at the feet* of its enemies, your 
means could not be more judiciously chosen, 
you could not operate with more infernal acute- 
ness. (Great applause.) 

We may ask ourselves : How is it possible 
that a policy so utterly absurb, reckless, and 
pernicious, should find any supporters among 
men whose sound sense and patriotism are not 
completely extinguished ? I find the reason in 
a vague impression, here and there prevailing, 
that the Union and universal good feeling may 
be restored by a policy of conciliation and com- 
promise. I find it in the generous impulses of 
magnanimous hearts, which insist that those 
who are conquered and brought to terms, should 
be reattached to us by a kind and forbearing 
treatment. There is no man in this country 
who would be less inclined than I to listen to 
the promptings of vengeance and resentment. 
But while we are willing to act with a sincere 
desire to heal all wounds by generous accommo- 
dation, do you not see, that before we find a 
field for that magnanimity in offering terms to 
the conquered, the rebels must first be conquer- 
ed and brought to terms? (Applause.) And 
do you not further see, that if we follow the 
Chicago policy, the chance is rather, the rebels 
will be masters of the situation and bring us to 
terms ? Still, as the feeling I speak of is vague 
and indefinite, and may make itself heard inde- 
pendently of the Chicago platform, I will say a 
word on compromise in its general aspect. 

A compromise with the rebellion offered on 
our part, would necessarily contain two con- 
ditions : first, an abandonment of some essen- 
tial point determined by the national election 
of I8i50, for that was the occasion on which the 
rebels seceded ; and secondly, the stipulation 
that the rebels shall give up the struggle and 
return to their allegiance. Every sensible man 
who has his eyes open, knows that the rebels 
will certainly reject a compromise containing 
the second stipulation, as long as they entertain 
any hone of achieving their independence. The 
question arises, Would it be good policy to offer 
the first, even by way of experiment ? 

I have already said enough to make it evi- 
dent, that as long as the rebels have confidence 
in their ability to win ultimate success, they will 



insist on their terms and not think of accepting 
ours. We must therefore shake that confidence. 
How shake it ? By a display of superior power, 
and an inflexible determination to carry on the 
struggle to the bitter end. That will make them 
count the cost and consider. But what if we 
show signs of a flagging spirit, of a shaky de- 
termination ? What if we act as if we had lost 
our assurance of our ability to achieve success 
in the game of war ? They will take new hope 
and courage. And is not an offer of a compro- 
mise, that is, an offer to abandon some essential 
point determined in the election of 1860, an 
indication of a flagging and uncertain spirit? 
The matter resolves itself into this : The rebels 
will not think of accepting a compromise, until 
their prospects arc so obscured and their power 
so reduced, that they would be obliged to submit 
without it. Thus it will be no more difficult to 
beat them into submission, than it will be to 
beat them into a compromi je ; and that accom- 
plished, the compromise will be superfluous. 
But the offer of a compromise before that point 
is reached, will be not only superfluous but 
dangerous ; for by giving evidence of a flagging 
of our own spirits, it will bring new courage 
and hope to the rebels, and thus prolong the 
struggle and postpone the moment when a set- 
tlement can be effected. (Applause.) 

But this is not all. I contend that a compro- 
mise in our case, even if it could be effected, 
would be utterly inadmissible as a measure of 
peace. (Great applause.) 

The word compromise has acquired a certain 
traditional prestige iu our political history, so that 
many people pronounce it with a singular super- 
stitional awe, and think nothing is done well that 
i? not done by compromise. It is said that the 
Constitution is founded on compromise — and so 
it is. But there is one thing iu the Constitution, 
which is not founded upon compromise, which 
does not admit of any compromise, which is, in 
the very nature of things, absolute and impera- 
tive. It is the principle, that, when the will of 
the majority upon a question constitutionally 
subject to be decided by the majority, is once 
expressed and proclaimed in a constitutional 
form, the minority is absolutely and uncondi- 
tionally bound to submit. (Applause.) There 
is no cavilling about this principle. It is the 
very foundation of all republican government; 
without it the whole republican edifice would 
at once tumble dowu as a chaotic, shapeless 
mass. It is the balance-wheel of the whole 
machinery. The observance of this principle is 
the fundamental obligation of the citizen. 
Every measure of policy may be subject to com- 
promise, but this fundamental obligation is not. 
It can be bound to no conditions, for if it were, 
it would cease to be absolute. 

Apply this to our case. A constitutional 
election was held in I860. All constitutional 
requirements were strictly fulfilled. Abraham 
Lincoln received a constitutional majority of 
the votes ; he was made President in a strictly 
constitutional manner. And because the ma- 
jority which elected him entertained certain 
opinions of public policy obnoxious to a minor- 
ity, that minority rose in rebellion against the 
Government. You now propose to buy that 



rebellious minority back by relinquishing some 
of the principles held by the majority. You 
do this, because the minority has risen up in 
arms against the constitutionally expressed will 
of the majority. Iu other words, you, the ma- 
jority, confess yourselves so far conquered as 
you are willing to surrender part of the decision 
of the ballot-box to the force of arms. And 
thus far you declare the fundamental obligation, 
of submission to the constitutional verdict of 
the majority not binding; the minority, if it 
please, may force the majority to surrender the 
whole or part of its will. It may do so, for it 
has succeeded in doing so. The new principle 
you introduce into our political life is this: the 
minority is bound by the constitutional verdict 
of the majority, unless it be strong enough to 
force the majority to concessions ; then it is not 
bound, that is to say, elections are not finally 
decided at the ballot-box, but are afterward open 
to negotiation ; the minority proposes its con- 
ditions of submission to the result, and the 
fighting party wins. Do you know what that 
means v It means the transformation of the 
Republic of the United States into something 
like the old republics of Mexico and South- 
America; it means the government of revolu- 
tionary factions, instead of constitutional major- 
ities ; it means the introduction of rebellion as 
a standing element in our political life. (Great 
applause.) 

Do not accuse me of seeing spectres. Do not 
indulge in the vain illusion that this first great 
abandonment of the fundamental obligation will 
remain an isolated fact. Such precedents are 
prolific. Let it be once known that the con- 
stitutional majority can and may be forced to 
concessions, and the idea will have an irresisti- 
ble charm to reckless and restless minds. The 
composition of our people will no longer be 
what it was heretofore. The end of the war 
will throw a fearful number of adventurous 
spirits upon society, ready, at the call of an 
audacious leader, at any hour, to overleap the 
bounds of the accustomed order of things. 
Warlike habits, added to their warlike tastes, 
will stimulate them to wild enterprises, and a 
ceaseless war of factions would be to them an 
all too welcome field of adventure. This is the 
material, and you know where to look for the 
leaders. Already, at this moment, the country 
is teeming with unscrupulous demagogues, with 
whom treasonable scheming has become a hab- 
it ; already we hear of large importations of 
arms and ammunition, and their distribution 
among the members of secret organizations ; 
already we see in the papers threats of armed 
resistance to the loyal majority, in case certain 
candidates are defeated. And you could be 
willing to open this flood-gate of disorder by 
setting aside the only principle, the great funda- 
mental obligation, that keeps democratic gov- 
ernment in balance? You would inaugurate a 
system, which, by compromise and concession, 
pays and promises a premium to revolt? Is it 
not astonishing indeed that among men who 
have such a material stake in social order, as 
merchants and manufacturers, we should find so 
many advocates of that fatal policy ? And this, 
they vainly imagine, would lead to peace. The 



9 



sanctioned violation of the great principle which 
alone can maintain internal peace, should lead 
to peace ? Is the peace of Mexico and the 
Soijih- American republics the peace you want? 
Is a condition of things which will make a re- 
volt as familiar an occurrence as a national elec- 
tion — is that the peace you desire ? This, then, 
is compromise as a peace measure ; if it re- 
mains a mere experimental offer, encourage- 
ment of the rebels and prolongation of the 
war; if carried into effect, breaking down the 
great safeguard of social order, and inaugurat- 
ing an interminable war of factions, but no 
peace. (Great applause.) And now give me 
leave to sum up what I have said about the 
peace-programme of Chicago. 

In proposing that the war shall be stopped 
without making this proposition depend upon 
any peremptory condition, merely with a view 
to a thing which every body knows will not be 
agreed to, it encourages the rebels to persevere 
in their resistance. 

The result will be, either that the Government, 
if it falls into the hands of that party, will have 
to recognize the independence of the Southern 
Confederacy, or, after a cessation of hostilities, 
to resume the war. 

If it recognizes the independence of the" South- 
ern Confederacy, we shall soon have on our hands 
the complicated and endless wars which, in the 
very nature of things, must grow out of dis- 
union. 

If the Government, after a cessation of hostil- 
ities, resumes the present war for the Union, we 
shall labor under difficulties immensely greater 
than at present, for three reasons : 

1st. From a cessation of hostilities, such as 
proposed, the rebels will derive such advantages, 
and we such disadvantages, that the struggle 
will be almost hopeless ; and still, as peace is 
impossible with disunion, it will be as necessary 
as ever. 

2d. By declaring before the whole world that 
the war is a failure ; by demanding its cessation 
on the score of justice, humanity, liberty, and 
the public welfare ; by thus declaring the rebels 
in the right and our Government in the wrong ; 
and by thus condemning and virtually abandon- 
ing the war for the Union, they invite foreign 
powers to recognize the rebel Confederacy, and 
to throw their whole influence against an unjust, 
inhumane, tyrannical, and universally ruinous 
war. 

3d. By making the foregoing declarations, 
they turn public opinion in foreign countries 
against us, and discourage the movements now 
going on to give us financial aid ; and all this 
while it is certain, and they make it more so, 
that the war must either be continued after a 
useless cessation, or be resumed at a more or 
less distant period. 

And, finally, by implicitly advocating a policy 
of concession to armed rebellion, (hey propose 
to set aside the fundamental obligation of sub- 
mission to the constitutional will of tire majori- 
ity, to remove the only guarantee of order in 
democratic life, to pay a premium to revolt, and 
thus to open the flood-gates of civil disorder, 
and a turbulent and endless war of factions. 
This is the programme — these its immediate 



and inevitable results. Aud the men who thus 
attempt to create new complications, to increase 
the difficulties, and thus immensely to aggravate 
the calamities of war, these men dare to call 
themselves friends of peace ? What ! Have 
they not had bloodshed enough, that they want 
to make this war interminable? Is not the re- 
bellion strong enough, that they want to add to 
its strength all the aid in money, arms, and ma- 
terial, that foreign .friendship can give ? Are 
not our enemies numerous enough, that they 
want to engage for them the aid of foreign gov- 
ments ? Is not our financial condition embar- 
rassed enough, that they want to stop those re- 
sources which open themselves for us abroad ? 
Have we so many friends in the world, that they 
want to ruin us in the opinion of mankind ? 
What ! are they not satiated yet with ruin and 
desolation ? Will it take the sacrifice of new 
and countless hecatombs of men, the sacrifice of 
the fruits of another half-century of sweat and 
toil, to give them their fill ? And these men 
have the brazen front to demand your votes, 
pretending that they will give you peace ! You 
have heard of shore-pirates who set out false 
lights by night on the shore of the ocean when 
the weather is thick and stormy, to deceive and 
draw on the distressed mariner into the fatal 
breakers, and then to plunder the ship in pre- 
tending to save it. Take heed, Americans, and 
beware ! Trust not this light of peace ! This 
light is false ! There is no harbor behind it, 
nothing but rocks, reefs, breakers, shipwreck, 
and ruin ! 

Such is their cry of peace. But what shall 
we say of their patriotism ? Patriotism and that 
platform ! If the rebel emissaries at Niagara 
Falls alone had made it — for they certainly had 
their share in making it — if the friends of the 
rebels in England had made it — that we might 
understand. But that American citizens — sons 
of the great and happy free States — should have 
made this — can that be conceived by a true 
American heart? 

That platform and patriotism ! Show me the 
man who hates us most, he will like it best ! 
Show me the bitterest enemy of this Republic, 
he will crave a chance to vote for it! Show 
me the vilest villain in all rebeldom, who never 
prayed before ; he will sink upon his knees and 
pray for its success ! (Loud cheers and ap- 
plause.) 

When we want to designate all that was hu- 
miliating to our patriotic pride, all that was 
ruinous to the honor and safety of the Union, 
all that was contemptible and dastardly and 
treacherous in the conduct of our public affairs ; 
if we want to designate all this with one name, 
we call it James Buchanan. (Laughter and 
applause.) 

We thought the period in our history which 
is represented by that name, was finally absolved ; 
we thought it might be consigned to oblivion, as 
it was consigned to shame. But, alas! although 
Buchanan is dead and buried, those who indulged 
in the soothing delusion that such a man could 
leave no progeny, find themselves mistaken. 
Behold', a whole brood of young Buchanans has 
risen up and met in convention at Chicago. 
(Continued, laughter.) The laurels of their father 



/ 



10 



do not let them sleep. I see again the cunning 
twinkle of the eye, I see the white necktie again, 
(great laughter ;) they try to adjust it like a halter 
around the throat of the Republic, to throttle her 
to death. (Continued cheers.) Truly, the sons 
are greater than the sin.-. For what he did, we 
may say he did as a weak old man, whose life 
had been spent in a constant exercise of his 
knee-joints ; and who, when the rebellion first 
raised its Gorgon-head, had neither the firmness 
of a patriot nor I ■ of a traitor. But 

what they do, they do after thousands of noble 
men have stained the battlefields of their coun- 
try with their precious blood ; after the people 
have poured out their money like water to save 
the Republic ; after our invincible navy has 
battered down the Southern forts, and is com- 
manding the Southern waters ; they do it when 
the hero of Vickr.burgh is thundering at the gates 
of Richmond ; when our victorious flag waves 
over the rampatts of Atlanta, and Victory is 
the cry ! (Long-continued cheering.) Ah ! poor 
old man, hide thy head in shame, for thou canst 
no longer claim sueh proud preeminence in 
baseness. There are those that are greater than 
thou, and whose vaulting ambition laughs thy 
iniquity to scorn. Those are the men who made 
that platform ! (Tremendous applause.) 

And upon that platform they placed a soldier 
by profession as their candidate — a General who 
once commanded the armies of this Bepublic. 
Was there ever a man more cruelly insulted by 
his friends ? "Was there ever irony more cut- 
ting ? A General nominated for the Presidency 
for the distinct purpose of trading away other 
generals' victories ! A soldier appointed to 
make the successes of other soldiers useless! 
And he did not resent it by flinging platform 
and nomination into the faces of those who had 
made it, without losing a single moment ! Alas ! 
he did not. He waited. He endured this most 
outrageous insult — this mortal offence — without 
saying a worJ !■ Meanwhile murmurs of indig- 
nation arose, like a black cloud, from the army, 
against him who was once their commander — 
from every corner of the country cries of anger 
and contempt burst forth against the infamous 
Chicago surrender. But that was not all. A 
thrill of joy and enthusiasm Hashed through the 
heart of the nation when the word came : ; ' At- 
lanta is ours !" And, then, surrender! (Loud 
applause.) 

But now, at least, when the promptings of 



a candidate. That letter was endorsing the 
principles and advocating the election of Judge 
Woodward to the Governorship of Pennsylva- 
nia. And that letter is on record too. Who 
was Judge Woodward ? You know better than 
I can tell you, that he went as far as any of the 
class called peace-copperheads dared to go ; 
peace at any price, surrender, and all. And 
when was this letter endorsing his principles 
written? The circumstances are significant. 
We had just then suffered a very disastrous de- 
feat at the battle of Chicamauga, our Western 
army was in a most critical situation, in Virgi- 
nia the campaign had come to a complete stand- 
still, the affairs of the country looked dark. 
And then the General endorsed the principles 
and advocated the election of a peace-man. 
This is most interesting for the people to re- 
member. Thus we know how he is capable of 
speaking after a defeat. This gives us the ad- 
vantage, since he has now somewhat changed 
his tune after a victory, to conclude with safety 
how he is likely to speak in case of a defeat 
again. It is far from me to insinuate that the 
General was dishonest in writing his war-letter; 
nor was he dishonest in writing his letter for 
the peace-man. He means what he says now ; 
he meant what he said then. The General is a 
gentleman, and I sincerely believe he was honest 
both times. But this kind of honesty is a fair 
indication of the policy we may look for from 
that, quarter. "While I detest that sort of peace- 
spirit, I am afraid pf that sort of war-spirit. 
And this is the war-spirit of a party which 
deemed it necessary to postpone its convention 
from the fourth of July to the twenty-ninth of 
August, to give events time to develop them- 
selves, and to shape their policy accordingly. 

For peace when the horizon of the country is 
gloomy, and for war when it is bright ! Is that 
the kind of patriotism we want ? This fair- 
weather patriotism, which is ready to give up 
the country in the hour of misfortune, although 
it makes a show of standing by the country in 
the hour of success? And upon that shifting 
sandhill you will build the future of the Repub- 
lic ! (Great cheering.) What if to-morrow an 
untoward accident should overtake our armies ; 
will it stand the test, or will it give up the 
country again ? Remember, that it is in the hour 
of gloom and despondency that the country 
stands most in need of the unswerving devotion 
of her sons ! (Loud applause.) Give me the 



prudence came to the aid of the voice of just man. who, in storm as well as in sunshine, 



resentment, now, at last, he spurned the plat- 
form, and he scorned to lie the candidate of the 
men that made it, and of the party that adopted 
it ? Oh ! no. For him, I regret to say, the oppor- 
tunity for showing the metal of a great charac- 
ter was lost. He chose a middle way. He did 
not repudiate, nor did he approve, but he ig- 
nored the platform and took the nomination. 
This has, at least, the charm of novelty. The 
candidate wrote a skilfully worded political let- 
ter, showing that the art, How not to say it, can 
be brought to as high a degree of perfection as 
the art, How not to do it. (Laughter and 
cheers.) It is upon record. But that was not 
the first political letter of his life. The General 
had written one about a year ago, before he was 



amidst the cries of distress as well as the jubilee 
of victory, will stand by the cause of his coun- 
try with a faith unshaken, with a courage un- 
dismayed, with a purpose unbending, and him 
I will call a patriot ; but not those whose firm- 
ness depends upon the revolutions of the wheel 
of fortune ! (Enthusiastic cheering.) And this 
kind of firmness will have to stand a singular 
test. We shall have the alarming spectacle of 
an honest but not altogther inflexible character 
in very bad company. 

There is no American who does not know 
that a President's policy is not made by him 
alone, but by those who made him ; and there 
is no American who will forget that the strength 
of the vote which nominated this candidate at 



11 



Chicago was far exceeded by the unanimity with 
which the platform was adopted. And now 
ignore the platform and take the nomination ? 
In ancient tales we read of men who, in order 
to enjoy all the good things of the world, 
pledged their souls to the devil by compact ; 
and they did enjoy the good things of this 
world, but then played the virtuous in order to 
save their souls ; but at the appointed time, the 
devil produced the compact signed with blood, 
and claimed and took the forfeit. And this 
Presidential candidate thinks he can enjoy the 
good things of this world, and then, by playing 
the virtuous, cheat the devil out of hi-. 
Vain, undertaking ! This devil will be too much 
for the man who wrote the Woodward letter, 
and either the good things of this world will not 
be enjoyed, or the forfeit will be claimed and 
taken! (Loud cheers and applause.) 

No, no, this is no jest ! I am in sober earn- 
est, and mean what I say. Either that party 
must go to pieces, or it must be held ti 
by bargain and sale. If it goes to pieces, well 
and good ; the smaller the pieces, the better. 
(Laughter and cheers.) But if it be held to- 
gether by bargain and sale, what is the price at 
which the support of the surrender men can 
be secured ? What assurances, what secret 
pledges must be given V And you know well 
enough that those old party-leaders are not the 
men who work merely for the gratification of 
another man's ambition. 

How will it be when the leaders of the sur- 
render party press around the throne and claim 
the forfeit ? Will the new war President then 
lean for strength upon his brother Pendleton, 
that most abject and submissive of all surrender 
Democrats? 

How magnificent a combination would be this : 
Horatio Seymour as Secretary of State and chief 
of the circumlocution-office ; Seymour, of Con- 
necticut, as Secretary of the Navy ; Vallandigham 
as Secretary of War ; and Fernando Wood, in 
consideration of the peculiar lustre which his 
honesty sheds upon his talents, Secretary of the 
Treasury. (Peals of laughter.) And would such 
a combination, if bargain as a last refuge be re- 
sorted to, would it be more wonderful than the 
harmony of the Chicago Convention ? Is not 
the support of all of them necessary ? 

No, no, I ani not jesting. If the party be held 
together and the Cabinet should be a complete 
Pandemonium, there would be nothing surpris- 
ing in it. Such arrangements have been seen 
before, when things were working smoothly, 
and when there was no apparent conflict between 
platform and candidate. How, then, may it be 
now, when the necessities of the party are so 
pressing that they must resort to extreme rem- 
edies to save it ? (Cheers.) 

Meanwhile, you will see them walk from voter 
to voter and say, "Are you for war? So are 
we, my friend; here is our candidate!'' or, 
" Are you for peace ? So are we, my friend ; 
here is our platform !" — only in one thing treat- 
ing all alike, in deceiving each other and in de- 
ceiving all ! For when they say, '' We are for 
war," may not the answer be, " You lie, for 
here is your platform!" Or, when they say, 



"We are for peace," may not the answer be, 
" You lie, for here is your candidate !" (Cheers 
and applause.) 

Americans, what a spectacle is this ! How 
sad, how loathsome an exhibition ! And it is 
in this way that a great nation is to decide of its 
future ! In this gulf of deception and duplicity 
you would sink the fortunes of your country ? 
From my inmost heart, from the very depth of 
my profoundest convictions, I warn you. Out 
of this, nothing can grow but a peace that can- 
not last, or a war that will not end ; a peace 
without honor and solidity, or a war without 
faita. without nerve, without success, without 
decision. (Great applause.) 

It is with a sense of relief that I turn from 
this fearful labyrinth of confused contradictions, 
of dark arrangements, of continually shifting 
pretences, to another programme of peace policy, 
which has at least the merit of consistency in 
its principles, of unyielding firmness iri its pol- 
icy, atid of straightforward clearness in its prop- 
ositions. It is the platform of the great Union 
party. (Applause.) Let us examine the wisdom 
of its policy with a view to the restoration of 
peace. Its first resolution reads thus : 

" Resolved, That it is the highest duty of every 
American citizen to maintain against all their 
enemies the integrity of the Union and the 
ount authority of the Constitution and 
laws of the United States ; and that, laying 
aside all differences and political opinions, we 
ourselves as Union men, animated by a 
common sentiment, and aiming at a common 
object, to do everything in our power to aid the 
Government in quelling by force of arms the 
rebellion now raging against its authority, and 
in bringing to the punishment due to their 
crimes the rebels and traitors arrayed against 
it." 

This, at least, is clear and definite. There 
are no "it's" nor "biits." Starting from the 
conviction that.disuuion will bring on intermin- 
able conflicts, and that, if, in the interest of fear 
alone, the Union must, absolutely must be re- 
stored — and only our enemies abroad and trait- 
ors at home doubt that — and that the rebels will 
not consent to reunion unless the victories of 
our army and navy bring them to terms — and 
only fools doubt that — it is affirmed that there 
is nothing left to us but to seek peace by a resort 
to arms, by vigor and energy in its prosecution 
of the war, and by a faithful and devoted sup- 
port of the Government in its efforts to secure 
a speedy and decisive victory. This we explic- 
itly declare to be the sense of the loyal Amer- 
ican people. (Applause.) Not one of the points 
we have won is given up ; not one step is done 
backward ; not one advantage gained is jeopard- 
ized by a prevaricative policy; and while the 
Democratic promise of armistice and premature 
concession, by exhibiting a flagging spirit and a 
vacillating purpose, can only serve to encourage 
the rebels to persevere in their resistance, our 
inflexible determination will make them count 
the cost ; and if the Southern people are really 
tired of the war, if they really want peace, they 
will at last have to make up their minds, once 
for all, that they cannot get rid of this war, with 



12 



its burdens and its sacrifices, unless they buy 
peace at the only price at which it can be bought, 
the restoration of the Union. 

And, moreover, this declaration will make 
European governments understand that we do 
not consider this war a failure, nor that we mean 
io make it so ; and that, if they should conclude 
to give the rebellion countenance, and aid and 
comfort, they will never succeed in changing 
oar unalterable determination ; but may, indeed, 
succeed in pressing our resentment beyond the 
limits of mere remonstrance. And as to our 
detractors abroad, who are so anxious for peace 
and the cessation of bloodshed, but still more 
anxious for the breaking up of this Republic ; 
who, when sonic disaster has befallen us, so 



< ility, and a return to their just allegiance to 
the Constitution and laws of the United States, 
and that we call upon the Government to main- 
tain this position, and to prosecute the war with 
tiie utmost possible vigor to the complete sup- 
pression of the rebellion, in full reliance upon 
t'nc self-sacrifice, the patriotism, the heroic \ afor, 
and the undying devotion of the American 
people to their country and its free instil 
tio:is." 

While We all agree that hatred and r 
ment ought to have no share in the final settle- 
ment of our differences, it is declared that cue 
lawful authority of the Government must be 
vindicated in such a manner as to leave the fun- 
damental obligations of the citizen toward it no 



blandly epdeav6r to persuade us that now it ig longer in doubt. In other words, if you have 



time to st< >;->, 1 hat now we can endure it no longer, 
that after all separation would be best for both 
parties, (they omit to speak of third and fourth 
parties,) and that our own welfare would be b 
promoted by consenting to it without unnecessary 
delay, and who, when, in spite of their maghau- 



a matter of principle or of policy to discuss, to 
defend, to carry, there are the means to dis- 
cuss, to defend, to carry it. If you succeed, 
well and good. If you fail, you must try 
again by the same means or give up. But 
whoever rises in rebellion against the will of 



imous advice, we steadily work on, show their the majority, constitutionally expressed, must 
little humor by accusing us of heartlessness and be brought to submit to it unconditionally, so 
barbarism, flavoring their urgencies from time that every man, woman, and child throughout 
to time with a dark rumor of foreign interven- . this broad land may know thai . >tksing 

tion; by this declaration we give th m to a! nil, run be ht&de by forcibly resisting that 
understand, once for all, that they might as well ' will. This point once sternly, inflexibly estab- 
bridle their tender solicitude; that the Amer- lished, no man will henceforth be tempted to 
iean people are not acting upon the vast impulse embark in an enterprise which is so perilous 
of passion, but upon convictions broad and and also so hopeless. 

deep ; that, according to those convictions, a But the peace of the Republic must not rest 
lasting peace is impossible with disunion ; that, upon submission alone: it must lie placed upon 
therefore, whatever sacrifice i f may cost, the a solid found ition, by seteftog the hearty co- 
Union must be restored and Wilt be restored ; operation of the now rebellious p'eb'ple in the 
that this is our set purpose, and that they are future development of the restored Union, 
not smart enough to coax ire out of it, and, we Then, indeed, peace will be perfect. And this 
humbly suspect, nor, formidable enough to groat object is subserved by another proposi- 
frighten us out of it, (Great applause). ti6n submitted by the Union party. It is this: 

And, finally, this declaration will give an as- " Resolve;!, That as slavery was the cause, 
surance to our friends abroad, who are gen er- and now constitutes the strength of this rebel- 
ously willing to give us their moral and financial lion, raid as it must be always and everywhere 
aid, that considerations of justice, tity, hostile to the principles of 'republican govern- 

liberty, and the public welfare urge us not to ment, justice and the national safety demand 
stop the. war and abandon our purpose, but to its utter fend' complete extfr^wtfoft from the soil 
work on with increased vigor and unbending; of the Republic, and that we uphold and main- 
perseverance ; that we have faith in the justice tain the acts and proclamations by which the 
of our cause, and confidence in the final result; ' Government, in its own defence, his aimed a 
that our friends being true to usj we shall be death-blow at this gigantic evil. We are in fa- 
true to them ; that they not only will be pro- vor, furthermore, of such an amendment to the 
tected against their aid becoming a Sacrifice, ' Constitution, to be made by the people in con- 
but will once have the satisfaction of having ' fortuity with its provisions, as shall terminate 
contributed to the success of the greatest cause I and for ever prohibit the existence of slavery 
of this country. within the limits of the jurisdiction of the 

And now I appeal to you, Union men, and I ' United States." (Tremendous cheering.) 
appeal to you also, Democrats, is this, or is it not, The abolition of slavery was urged upon us, 
the only policy worthy of the great American ! first, as a measure of justice by the great moral 
people? Answer! laws of the universe; second, as a war meas- 

But here we do not stop. The rebellion be- ure, by the necessities of our situation ; and 
ing beaten down, the. rebels being obliged to I third, as the great measure of reconciliation, 



keep peace for the present by the utter exhaus- 
tion of their forces, peace must be secured for 
the future. The Union party presents for this 
object another resolution. It reads tints: 

" Resolved, That we approve the determina- 
tion of the Government of the Tinted States 
not to compromise with rebels, or to oiler any 
terms of peace, except such as may be based 
upen an ''unconditional surreuder" of their 



by the necessity of placing our internal peace 
upon the basis of political, social, and economi- 
cal harmony. To discuss it as a measure of 
justice or as a war measure is not my object at 
present; but discussing it as a peace measure, 
I boldly assert, that there is nothing that can 
bring about sincere, hearty, and lasting recon- 
ciliation but the abolition of slavery. 

First, then, as to harmony in our political 



13 



system. Was it not the profound and eternal 
antagonism between slavery and the fundamen- 
tal principles of our policy, that brought forth 
the strife which at last resulted in open rebel- 
lion ? The friends of despotism in the old 
world were in the habit of sneering at our de- 
mocratic experiment, and of predict! 
failure ; and when the rebellion broke out, they 
exulted over us and said, that the experi lent 
had already failed. They exulted too soon. 
The experiment was not in danger of failure 
because our political system was democrati 
because there was one element in it which was 
anti-democratic, and that rebelled against the 
rest. They have indeed exulted over us too 
soon; for we cast out the unclean spirit, we 
place the democratic experiment upon the 
course of a consistent, harmonious, and health- 
ful development, and its success will be surer 
than ever. 

Secondly, as to social and economical har- 
mony. What is it that the non-slaveholders of 
the South, the overwhelming majority of the 
Southern people, are fighting for ? Not their 
own interests, but the interests and aspirations 
of the slaveholding aristocracy. This aristocra- 
cy, by its wealth and superior spirit and intelli- 
gence, hold the non-slaveholding majority in a 
moral subjection, little less absolute than that 
of the slaves themselves. And upon what does 
that aristocratic superiority rest? Upon the 
system of slavery. Destroy slavery, and you 
will emancipate not only the blacks but the 
whites also. (Loud cheers.) In the place of 
the great aspiration of slavery, which is domin- 
ion, you will place the great aspiration of free 
labor, which is equality ; for the equality of the 
citizens is nothing but the recognized dignity 
of free labor. (Great applause.) The yoke once 
lifted, the Southern people once emancipated, 
they will not let a broken-down aristocracy 
think for them, but they will think for them- 
selves, like freemen ; they will have the aspira- 
tions of freemen, centred in truly free institu- 
tions, which are to be found in the Union. 
Their new dignity and their new aspirations will 
demand the school-house, and the school-house 
will make them look back with contempt upon 
their former wretchedness, and open the charms 
of new prospects and a new activity full to 
their view. These new prospects, this future 
of independence, self-reliance, and self-respect, 
will make them forget the past, in which there 
was nothing but degradation. Nor is this all. 
The downfall of slavery will open the road to 
property to the poor laboring man. Slavery 
was a huge insatiable land-eater. Slavery 
abolished, the great landed estates, based upon 
and supported by slave-labor, will go to pieces, 
and the pieces will fall into the hands of the 
poor laboring man. Instead of the grand pala- 
tial mansion, surrounded with miserable negro- 
cabins, and instead of the wretched hovel in- 
habited by the poor white, we shall soon see 
the neat. white cottage in the midst of small but 
flourishing fields, and the interior of that cot- 
tage will be adorned not with the bowie-knife 
and pistol, but with the book-case and every 
evidence of progressive civilization. This will 
go quickly as thought, for the Southern people 



will not be left to work out that development 
alone. Thousands and thousands of Northern 
men, who but recently bad been roaming over 
that country with sword and bayonet, and on 
tiiat occasion had made the discovery of the 
truth, will invade it again with spade and 
plough, and machinery, and capital, and know- 
ledge, and a spirit of progressive improvement. 
These Invaders will be the peaceable neighbors 
of the invaded, and each one will work for* the 
other in working for himself; and all will tie 
one people. Thu h people will be 

reorganized, regenerated by the emaneipati n 
of the large majority, also from the rule of a 
powerful few. Then the acrimony of the i 
li m will be blotted out even to the remem- 
brance ; the people will no longer have time to 
think of the differences of an unfortunate past, 
"for they will have to think of the' problems of 
a busy present and a hopeful rafure. (Cheers.) 

But what of the late slave-lord? Will he for- 
get his rancor also ? What if he does not ? 
His class w T as always weak in numbers, and the 
system which made it powerful in society is 
gone. Some of the once mighty cavaliers will 
sullenly sink in the flood, and their fossil re- 
mains, flattened and petrified, will be found, 
like those of the antediluvian mastodon, be- 
tween the strata of the new social organization. 
(Cheers.) Curious geologists will dig them 
out, and the children of the South will wonder 
how such monstrous animals could ever, have 
existed. (Loud applause.) But others will 
save themselves in the ark of the free-labor 
system. They will in time see the wisdom of 
accommodating themselves to the new order of 
things, and find out at last that it is better to 
be an equal among freemen than to be the 
master and at the same time the slave of slaves. 
(Applause.) And presently the South will bloom 
like the bursting bud of a flower. The immense 
resources of the soil will, as by enchantment, 
spring to light under the magic touch of free 
labor, and her riches will be enjoyed by a free, 
happy, and — ■ who doubts it ? — loyal people. 
And then will come the great day when the 
people of the regenerated South will stretch 
their hands across the Ohio and the Potomac 
and say : " Blessed be you, brethren of the 
North ! We were sick and wretched, and you 
have made us well ! Not only our slaves, but 
we also were in bondage, and you have broken 
our fetters ! " (Loud cheers.) 

This will be peace and reconciliation indeed ; 
a reconciliation in obedience to the great moral 
laws of the universe, and to the progressive 
spirit of our age ; a peace founded upon harmo- 
nious cooperation, mutual benefit, and good 
will to all men. Such must be, and such only 
can be, the internal peace of the Union. 

This, then, is the peace-programme of the 
Union party: Peace won by force of arms, 
maintained by an inflexible vindication of the 
majesty of the people, and fortified in the hearts 
of the people by the greatest reform of our cen- 
tury, founded upon justice to all. 

This settlement will secure order, for it fet- 
ters the spirit of rebellion by enforcing the fun- 
damental obligation of the citizen ; it will se- 
cure liberty, for it will cast out the demon 



14 



which attempted its overthrow ; it will secure 
prosperity and happiness, for it will throw open 
resources, hitherto untouched or wasted, to the 
unfettered genius of the American people, and 
extend the benefit of popular education into 
the darkest corner of the country. B it it will 
do more. This settlement wiU prepare this 
Republic for that power dhd greatness am 
nations of the earth, to which a manifest 
points vts finger. 

Lord John Russell once defined the Ameri- 
can war as the South fighting for independence 
and the North fighting for empire. I accept 
the word. Aye, the South is fighting for inde- 
pendence; aye, we are fighting for empire,, and 
for empire, too, on the very grandest of scales ! 
(Loud cheers.) It is so, and it cannot be other- 
wise. 

What is the independence the South is fight- 
ing for ? Look at it. It is the rending asun- 
der of what naturally belongs together ; it is 
the breaking up of a great Republic which 
promised to throw its peaceful shield over un- 
told millions ; it is the establishment of a Con- 
federacy on the corner-stone of the most hide- 
ous abomination of the age; it is the introduc- 
tion of incessant strife and all the desolations of 
internal war, where there might have been the 
abode of happy repose and civilizing industry ; 
it is the necessity of turning a large proportion 
of the social forces, which might have all been 
devoted to the pursuit of moral and material 
improveirieBJ ivage and tyrannical pur- 

suit of attack and defence ; it is the destruction 
of free institutions; it is the interruption of 
progressive civilization ; it is the ceaseless and 
blood, if factions, instead of the tran: 

qull government of public opinion ; it is vest- 
less weak, d of peaceful n | 
strength ; it is the contempt of the world, in- 
stead of its admiration ; it is the poor and op- 
pressed of the world robbed of their asylum ; it 
is a great young nation robbed of a great and 
happy future. Such is the breaking up of this 
Republic, such is Southern independence. (Ap- 
plause. ) 

And what is the empire we are fighting for : 
It is indeed not a state, with an emperor A Us 
L; it is indeed not like the empire of the 
Romans of old, or of Great Britain in India, 
who subjugated nations, and coined the sweat 
and tears qi , 'egsed into gold; it is in- 

deed not like that of the first Napoleon, who 
id his brothers and minions upon the 
thrones of ruined states, and threw his iron fin- 
like a vice around the throats of conquer- 
ed nations. But look at this : here is a coun- 
try of three million three hundred thousand 
square miles, nearly two millions of which are 
capable of a high order of agricultural improve- 
ment ; a country washed by the two great 
oceans on the, east and west, and intersected by 
the most magnificent rivers and strings of 
lakes ; a country able to support more than a 
thousand million of inhabitants. This is the 
geographical character of the empire we are 
fighting for. And now as to the people. This 
country contains over thirty millious to-day, 
and by an estimate far below the ratio of in- 
crease established during the last seventy de- 



cades, it will contain one hundred million m 
fifty years, and five hundred million in a cen- 
tury — and elbow room for many more. And 
for the untold millions that are to inhabit it, we 
hold this country as a sacred trust ; to them we 
have to transmit the foundations upon which 
they can build their peace, prosperity, civiliza- 
tion, and power. We will transmit to them in- 
stitutions free from the vices and encumbrances 
of which European nations vainly strive to de- 
liver themselves ; free from the necessity of 
large and dangerous standing armies ; free from 
that pernicious centralization of power which 
springs from the dangers occasioned by the 
close proximity of powerful and hostile neigh- 
bors ; free from the blight of an aristocracy, 
and free from the curse of slavery. (Loud ap- 
plause.) We will transmit to them liberty and 
equal rights, secured by laws respectable and 
respected ; we will transmit to them a social 
organization in which every human being can 
enjoy the fruits of his labor with dignity and 
independence ; we will transmit to them a full 
abundance of the means which promote the 
uutramelled development of the moral and ideal 
element in human nature. We will transmit 
to them an untarnished national honor ; wc will 
transmit to them a power under whose shield 
the oppressed of the world will feel secure, and 
whose flag no king nor combination of kings 
will dare to touch. These blessings we will 
transmit to them in the frame of a Federal 
Constitution, the rational form of sclf-govern- 

lastic enough for ever so many hundred 
millions of citizens, leaving every individual and 
every community free to work out their own 

live development in their acknowledged 

, while binding all together in a bond of 
strength. In one word, we mean to build up a 
Republic, greater, more populous, freer, more 
prosperous, and more powerful than any state 
history trlls us of; a Republic having within 
it ilf all that can make a people great, good, 
a id happy, and being so strong, that its pleasure 
will be consulted before any power on earth will 
undertake to disturb the peace of the world. 
(Loud cheering.) This, my Lord John Russell, 

apire wc are fighting for, and this em- 
pire wc mean to have. [Great applause.)' 

The nations of old Europe stand aghast and 
look with silent terror and amazement at the 
Titanic grapple, at this life-or-death struggle be- 
tween the Roundheads and the Cavaliers of 
America, between the army of the future and 
the army of the past. They have seeu us sur- 
prised by a gigantic and well-organized rebellion, 
as by a "thief in the night : we had no army, no 
navy, no arms, no war-funds in the treasury ; they 
have seen us create army and navy out of nothing 
in the twinkling of an eye, and the people pouring 
out their untold millions of money, as if it had 
not cost a drop of sweat to earn them. They 
have seen defeat come upon us with such stun- 
ning force, that the nation seemed to reel under 
the blow. And they cried failure, as now the 
allies of our enemies here are crying failure. 
But then they saw this nation quietly gather up 
its strength, and like the silent waves of the 
ocean roll against the bulwarks of rebellion. 
Another repulse equally stunning, and " fail- 



15 



ure " again, but again the wave rolls on with in- 
creased and tremendous momentum. And so 
they see the fearful game sway to and Fro, dis- 
aster set at defiance with grim stubbornness, 
victory wrung from the grasp of an unwilling 
fortune, until at last the Mississippi is ours, un- 
til the Atlantic coast is fringed with our con- 
quests, until the glorious Farragut (great cheer- 
ing) has battered down the forts of Mobile and 
swept the Southern waters, until the restless 
Sherman has dug his bloody way into the heart 
of Georgia, (continued cheering,) and until the 
indomitable Grant, whose unbending mind, in- 
sensible to disaster, is doggedly clinging to the 
heels of victory, has laid his iron hand upon 
the ramparts of Richmond. (Tremendous ap- 
plause.) And old Europe asks : Are they not tired 
yet? See here, old Europe ; this is the fourth 
year of the war. All rebeldom is swept clean 
by a merciless conscription. The President of 
the Un ted States calls again for half a million 
of men, and from all hills and valleys resounds 
the old song, "We are coming, we are com- 
ing ! " and over five thousand men a day vol- 
unteer for the bloody work of achieving their 
country's destiny. (Great applause.) 

Europe does not understand this inexhausti- 
ble perseverance, this bull-dog tenacity. Eu- 
rope does not know' the American. She looks 
upon him as a cold, dry, matter-of-fact creature, 
whose soul is tilled to its full capacity with busi- 
ness calculations and the meau cares of every- 
day life. Europe is mistaken. There is a pro- 
found idealism in the soul of the American, 
which breaks forth in its full force only on great 
occasions. The American believes in the great 
destiny of his country, believes in it with that 
unconquerable, immovable, religious, fanatic 
faith, to which the greatness of the difficulties 
to be overcome appears as nothing compared 
with the greatness of the object to be achieved. 
This faith lives not only in the head of the man 
of thought and far-seeing speculation ; it hovers 
over the plough of the farmer, over the anvil of 
the mechanic, over the desk of the merchant ; 
it is the very milk with which the American 
mother nourishes her baoy. This faith has pht 
our armies iuto the field and set our navy afloat ; 
as in France, every soldier is said to carry the 
marshal's baton in his knapsack, so in America 
the smallest cabin-lad of the fleet, the meanest 
drummer-boy in the field, carries in his soul the 
great ideal of his country's destiny. (Great 
cheering.) This faith knows no failure, and if 
it be staggered a moment by the blow of unex- 
pected misfortune, it bounds up again the next 
moment with a wonderful recuperative power. 
No, this faith knows no failure ; for it, no sacri- 
fice is too great, before its onset impossibility 
yields its stubbornness. The rebellion itself 
could not shake it ; no, by the rebellion it has 
gained in intensity. The rebellion has sudden- 
ly lifted this nation from her childhood. Hav- 
ing gone through struggles, the tremendous 
shocks of which not many states would have been 
able to endure, this nation now stands there 
with the inspiring consciousness of mature 
strength. She did not know before how strong 
she was, but now she knows ; and whatever trials 
may be in store for her, fear and weakness will 



have no seat at her council-board. And with 
proud confidence she looks forward to the day, 
when the united power of North and South 
will rally again under the common banner of 
liberty, and when it will be a question of first 
interest to foreign powers, how far, during this 
war, they have provoked the resentment of the 
American people. (Tremendous cheering.) 
Meanwhile, guided by her great faith as by a 
column of fire by night and a column of cloud 
by day, the nation marches forth to do or die for 
the grand republican empire of the future. 

And this great republican empire of the fu- 
ture is no idle dream, no mere empty hallucina- 
tion of a heated brain. The stupendous pros- 
pect is opened by potent fact and the demon- 
strations of reason. This republic cannot but 
be great, if it is one ; but there can be nothing 
but strife, weakness, and decay, if it be divided. 
The questions of peace, empire, national exist- 
ence, liberty, prosperity, civilization — all these 
questions are one and inseparable. In the very 
nature of things, this republic must be great or 
it must die. There is no alternative. The 
great republican empire is there, it is within 
your grasp, if you only remain true to the idea. 

And now hear me, Americans of to-day, and 
mark my words : In the peace which you are 
now struggling for, you will lay the foundation 
of this future greatness, or you will lay in it the 
seeds of decay, disease, and death. Whatever 
you may have achieved, you have done nothing 
if you will not do more. (Great applause.) 
This is the turning-point of your development ; 
this is the moment of the final decision ; this is 
the great opportunity. Take care how you use 
it. It will never, never come back. Woe to 
the statesman who now conceives a plan or 
cherishes a sympathy, that is not in accordance 
with this great development. Woe to the party, 
that now tries to lure the people from the glo- 
rious path. Woe to the people if at this so- 
lemn moment they mistake their duty to them- 
selves and to future generations. It is with her 
life that the nation would have to pay for the 
fatal error. (Loud applause.) 

Not to the rebels will I appeal. The slave 
lords, fighting for institutions which are con- 
demned by the unanimous voice of enlightened 
humanity, have set their hearts upon reviving 
what is dead, and the voice of reason and argu- 
ment cannot pierce their fatal infatuation ; and 
their retinue follows them like a flock of sheep. 
Let them fulfil the destiny they have made for 
themselves. Let the dead bury their dead. 
(Applause.) 

Nor will I appeal to those degenerate sons of 
the North who have openly allied themselves 
with the enemies of their country ; who rejoice 
over her disasters and grieve over her victories. 
They present one of those singular examples of 
human depravity, which must be seen in order 
to be believed. That a son should mock a 
benignant mother, when she is weeping tears 
of agony and distress, that her smile of pride 
and happiness should make him sad, that can 
hardly be explained upon any psychological the- 
ory. It shows a depth of moral perversity so 
deep and dark, that the ordinary understanding 
cannot sound it, and that even the creative power 



16 






of imagination stands baffled. When I see such 
a man, I feel myself overcome by a feeling of 
profound pity ; pity for a soul that has closed 
itself against those great and generous emotions 
which would unite it in joy and grief with so 
many thousand kindred souls, pity for the sul- 
len miseries of a ban-en heart. But to reason 
with them would be in vain, for we cannot fol- 
low them into the sombre and tangled mazes 
of their motives. We must leave them to the 
infamy they have chosen for themselves. (Loud 
applause.) 

But to you, whose hearts are still open to the 
entreaties of your hopefully struggling country, 
but whose eyes are clouded by party spirit, or 
by the false pride of preconceived opinions, or 
by little resentments, to you I address this last 
appeal. There is the great destiny, of your Re- 
public ; the warmest enthusiasm of your hearts 
for it cannot be too fiery, your deepest prayers 
for it cannot be too pressing. You see it before 
you. The means by which it can be achieved 
I have pointed out to you ; no, not that, I have 
only reminded you of them, for your own com- 
mon-sense, your own experience, the unani- 
mous opinion of this century, your own con- 
sciences, point them out. These means are 
powerful, but plain, direct, and simple ; and in 
their grand directness and simplicity worthy of 
the tremendous object to be achieved. And 
now you come with your puny trick and shifts 
of compromise? Now you can find any com- 
fort for your souls in the pusillanimous, danger- 
ous, pernicious expedient of the weak and shaky, 
to do things by halves ? Now you can parade 
petty grievances before the world and raise the 
silly cry of despotism, a cry so silly, that those 
who raise it cannot meet each other in the street 
without smiling ? Now, in the face of this tre- 
mendous stake, you resort to your little cunning 
contrivances to confuse the minds of the peo- 
ple, merely to gain an advantage for a party ? 
Now you cannot set your heel upon the con- 
temptible ranklings of personal disappointment 
or the groveling animosity of minor differences 
of opinion ? Now insist upon being small when 
the country expects every one of her sons to 
rise to the height of her own destiny ? Now, 
when the fate of the Republic stands upon the 
brink of the most fearful cision, a decision 



which will be irrevocable for ever ? Party ! 
Have you not learned yet that in times of a 
great crisis there can be only a. for and against, 
and that all which is half this and half that must 
be ground to dust as between two millstones ? 
(Loud applause.) Have you not learned that 
lesson in the contest of I860 ? Then you will 
learn it now, when your organization is crum- 
bling to pieces like a rotten stick, dangerous for 
hirn who leans upon it ; crumbling to pieces in 
spite of artful duplicity, in spite of trade and 
bargain. This is not a mere accident; it is the 
inexorable logic of things. (Applause.) And 
out of this disgraceful shipwreck you can hesi- 
tate to save the proud privilege of being useful 
to your country ? Not I alone entreat you thus. 
Hear the voice of him, who leads your sons and 
brothers on the field of battle : " The end is 
near; only let the North be true to herself! 
Unity of sentiment and unity of action, and 
victory is sure!" And not he alone. Every 
sigh and moan of the wounded soldier, every 
drop of blood that stains our battle-fields, every 
tear that moistens the pale cheeks of our widows 
and orphans, cries out to you : " Take care that 
this be not in vain. L T nite for the struggle !" 
(Applause.) 

But, believe me, it is not from fear of failure 
that I appeal to you. I appeal to you that your 
names may not go down to your children on the 
suspicious list of the doubtful. I wish that the 
country might be proud of all her sons. 

Indeed, whatever you may do, we fear you 
not ; for, although only glorious New-England 
has spoken, (great cheering,) I solemnly declare 
my belief, the people have already decided in 
their,. hearts. This nation will not be false to 
her great destiny. You try in vain to stop her 
march by throwing yourselves under her feet. 
Come with her if you will, or she will march 
over you if she must. (Long-continued and 
tremendous applause.) In every pulsation 
of the popular heart, in every breeze, there is 
victory ; and in the midst of the din and confu- 
sion- of the conflict there stands the National 
Will, undisturbed, in monumental repose, and 
gives his quiet command : For the Great Em- 
piric of Liberty, Forward ! (Long-continued 
cheers and applause, and waving of hats.) 



F ntkd by John A. Gray & Green New-York. 



THE VOTES OF THE COPPERHEADS 



LN THE 



CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES. 






The following record, carefully compiled from the Journals of the House 
of Representatives of the last session of Congress, is respectfully' submitted 
to the consideration of the loyal and patriotic voters of the Uuited States, 
without any regard whatever to party relations. 

The name of GEORGE H. PENDLETON", the candidate of the party op- 
posed to the Administration, is printed iu capitals wherever it occurs, in ordur 
that the attention of all voters may be particularly called to his Congres- 
sional record. That is the case with the names of JAMES C. ALLEN 
and JAMES C. ROBJNSON, of Illinois, the former running as the copp*r- 
kezd candidate '"or C mgressman at large, and the latter as the copperhead 
candidate for governor of that State. 

GREEN CLAY SMITH'S RESOLUTIONS. 

The Copperheads favor an armistice before the rebels lay down their 
arms. 

1863— Dec. 17, Mr. Smith, of Kentucky, offered these resolutions : 

1. Resolved, That, as our country, and the very existence of the best 
Government every instituted by man, are imperiled by the most causeless 
and wicked rebellion that the world has ever Been, and believing, as we do, 
that the only hope of saving this country and of preserving the Govern- 
ment is by the power of the sword, we are lor the most vigorous prosecu- 
tion of the wfr until the Constitution and laws shall be enforced and 
obeyed in all parts of the United States ; and to that end we oppose auy 
armistice or intervention, or mediation, or proposition for peace, from any 
quarter, so long as there shall be found a rebel in arms against, the Govern- 
ment; and we ignore all party names, lines and issues, and recognize but 
two parties in this war — patriots and traitors. 

2. Resolved, That we hold it to be the duty of Congress to pass all 
necessary bills to supply men and money, and the duty of the people to 
render every aid in their power to the constituted authorities of the Gov- 
ernment in the crushing out of the rebellion, rvnd in bringing the leaders 
thereof to condign punishment, 

3. Resolved, That our thanks are tendered to our soldiers in the field 
for their gallantry in defending and upholding the flag of the Union, and 
defending the great principles dear to every American patriot. 

On a call for a division of the vote on the resolutions, Mr. Anooha 
moved to lay the first resolution on the table, which was lost, yeas 60, nay* 
100. 
The first resolution was then adopted — yeas .94 ; nays 65, as follows : 
Yeas — Messrs. Alley, Allison, Ames, Anderson, Arnold, Ashley, Baily^ 
John D. Baldwin, Beaman, Blaine, Blow, Boutwell, Boyd, Brandegee, 
Broornall, Ambrose W. Clatk, Cobb, Cole, Creswell, Henry Winter Davi&, 
Thomas T. Davis, Dawes, Deming, Dixon, Donnelly, Driggs, Dumont, 
Eckley, Eliot, Farnsworth, Fenton, Frank, Garfield, Grinnell, Hale, Higby, 
Hooper, Hotchkiss, Asahel W. Hubbard, John H. Hubbard, JEfujburd, 
Jenckes, Kasson, Kelley, Francis W. Kellogg, Orlando Kellogg, Loa,n 



Printed by ?>. Towers for the Union Congressional Oommitto*. 



.4 
J k „ .. 

Longyear, Lovejoy. Marvin, McAllister, MeBride, McClurg, McJndce, Sam- 
uel F. Miller, Moorbead, Morrill, Daniel Mori is, AmcsMjers, Le< nard My- 
ers, Norton, Odell, Charles O'Neill, Orth, Patterson, Peibam, Pike, Pi me-, 
rcy, Price, William H. Randall, Alexander JJ. Kice, John E. Rice, Ed-' 
ward B. Rollins, Schenck, So field, Shannon, Sloan, Smith, Smilhtis, 
Spaulding, Stevens, Thayer, Tracy, Van Vftlkenbuigh, Elihu B. Wash- 
burne, William B. Washburn, Whaley, Williams, Wilder, Wilson, Win- 
dom, Woodbridge, Yeaman — 94. 

Nays— Messrs. JAMES C.ALLEN, William J. Allen, Ancona, A. 
C. Baldwin, Bliss, Brooks, Chanler, Coffroih, Cox, Ciavens, Dawson, 
Dennison, Eden, Edgcrion, Eldridge, English, Finck, Gansvn, Grider, 
Grhwold, Hall, Harding, Benjamin G. Harris, Charles M. Harris, Hcr- 
rick, Huichins, William Johnson, Keinan, Kna-pp, Law, LeBlond, Lopg, 
Mallory, Marcy, McDowell, Me Kinney, Middle ton, William H. Miller ; 
James R. Morris, Morrison, Nelson, Nolle, John O'Neill, PENDLE- 
TON, Perry, Radford, Samvel J. Randall, ROBINSON, Rogers, Jas. 
S. Rollins, Ross, Scott, John B. Steele, Wm. G. Steele, Stiles, Strouse, 
Stuart, Voorhees, Wadsworth, Ward, Wheeler, Chilton A. White, Joseph 
W. White, Winfield, Fernando Wood~65. 

Ykas — Union, 90 ; Democrats, 4. 

Nays — Union, none ; Demociats, 65. 

THE COPPERHEADS VOTE THAT IT IS NOT THE DUTY OF THE PEOPLE 
TO FIGHT DOWN AND DISTEOY THIS ACCURSED RIBELL10N. 

1864 — January 18, Mr. Smith offered the following resolution : 
Whereas, A most desperate, and wicked and Moody rebellion exists 
within the jurisdiction of the United States, and the safety and security of 
personal and national liberty depend upon its absolute and utter extinction ; 
therefore, 

Resolved, That it is the political, civil, moral, and sacred duty of the 
people to meet it, fight it, crush it, and forever destroy it,theieby establish- 
ing perfect and unalterable liberty- 
Mr. James C. Allen moved to lay the resolution upon the table, which 
was lost — yeas 26; nays 101, as follows: 

The resolutions were then ariopied ; yeas 112, nays 16, as follows : 
Yeas — Messis. Allison, Ames, Arnold, Daily, Augustus C. Baldwin, 
John D. Balwin, Baxter, Blanc, Fiancis P. Blair, Jacob B. Blair, Bout- 
well, Boyd, Brandegee, Broomali, James S. Brown, William G. Brown, 
Ambrose W. Clark, Freeman Claike, Cole, Cravens, Creswell, Dawes, 
Deming, Dixon, Donnelly, Driggs, Buckley, Eldridge, Eiliot, English, 
Farnsworth, Fenton, Frank, Ganson, Garfield, Gooch, Grinnell, Griswold, 
Hale, Harding, Higby, Holman, Hooper, Hotcbkiss, Ashael W. LluWard, 
Hutchings, Janckes, Julian, Katson, Kelley, Francis W. Kellogg, Orlando 
Kellogg, Kernan, Loan, Lonpyear, Lovejoy, Marvin, MeBride, McCluig, 
Mclndoe, Middleton, Samuel F. Miller, Moorthead, Morrill, Daniel Mor- 
ris, Amos Myers, Leonard Myers, Nelson, Odell, Charles O'Neill, Onh, 
Patieisoc, Pike, Pomeroy, Piice, Radford, William H. Randall, Alexan- 
der H. Rice, John H. Rice, Rogers, Edwaid B. Rollins, James S. Rollms, 
Schenck, Seofield, Shannon, Smith, Smithers, Spalding, Stevens, Stibbins, 
Strouse, Stuart, Sweat, Thayer, Tiumas, Tracy, Upson, Van Valkenburgh, 
Wadsworth, Elihu B. Washbume, William B. Wash! am, Webster, Wha- 
ley, Wheeler, Williams, Wilder, Wilson, Windoro, Winfield and Wood- 
bridge — 112. 

Nays — Messrs. JAMES C. ALLEN, Ancona, Denntson, Benjamin G . 
Harr** fn»g, Marcy, McDowell, Wm. H. Miller, Morrison, John O'NeillJ 



PENDLETON, ROBINSON, Stiles, Voorhees, Chilton A. White 
and Fernando Wood — 16. 

Yeas — Union, 87; Democrats, 25. 

Nays — Union, 0; Democrats, 16. 

Solders in the field an I people of the United States, mark it well that 
GEO. II PENDLESON", the Copperhead candidate for Vice President, 
voted against this resolution. 

COWARDLY PEACE PROPOSITIONS. 

The Copperhead* vote to appoint three Commissioners to treat with 
Jeff. Davis for pjace, a id thus acknowledge his bogus confederacy that has 
wa^ed a desolating, cruel, and causeless war, and destroyed the lives of 
untold thousands of our noble soldiers. 

1863— Dec. 14, Mr. Fernando Wood, of New York, offered the follow- 
ing resolution : 

Whereas, The President in his message delivered to the House on the 
9th instant, and in his recommendation to the people to assemble at their 
places of worship and give thanks to God for recent victories, claims that 
the Uuion cause has gained important and substantial advantages ; and 
whereas, in view of these triumphs, it is no longer beneath our dignity, 
nor dangerous to our safety, to evince a generous magnamity becoming a 
great and powerful people by offering to the insurgents an opportunity to 
return to the Union without posiug on them degracing or destructive 
conditions ; therefore, 

Resolved, That the Presiu be requested to appoint three commission- 
ers, wao shall be empowered .o open negotiations with the authorities at 
Richmoud, to the eud that this bloody, destructive and inhuman war shall 
cease, and the Union be restored on terms of equity, fraternity and equal- 
ity under the Constitution. 

Mr. Elihu B. Washburne, of Illinois, moved that it be laid on the 
table, which was agree i to — yeas 98, nays 59, as follows: 

Yeas — Messrs. Alley, Allison, Anderson, Arnold, Ashley, Baily, John 
D. Baldwin, Baxter, Bearaan, Blaine, Jacob B. Blair, Blow, Boutwell, 
Boyd, Brandegee, Broomall, W^'iam G. Brown, Ambrose W. Ciark, 
Freeman Ciarke, Cobb, Cole, Creswell, Henry Winter Davis, Dawes, Deal- 
ing, Dxou, Donnelly, Drigg-s, Dumont, Eckley, Eliot, Farusworth, Feuton, 
Ganson, Garfield, Goo h, Grinnell, Griswold, Higby, Hooper, Hotchkiss, 
Asahel W. Hubbard, John H. Hubbard, Hulburd, Jenckes, Julian, Kasson, 
Francis W. Kellogg, Orlaudo Kellogg, Loan, Lo'igyear, Lovejoy, Marvin, 
McBride, MeCiurg, Moludoe, Samuel F. Miller, Moorhead, Morrill, Daniel 
Morris, Amos Myers, Leonard Myers, Nortou, Cnarles O'Neill, Orth, Pat- 
terson, Perh am, Pike, P omeroy, Price, William H. Randall, Alexander H. 
Rice, John U. Rice, Elwar 1 H.Rollins, Schenck, Scofield, Shannou, Sloan, 
Smith, Smithers, Spalding, Stevens, Tnayer, Thomas, Tracy, Upson, Var 
Valke-i burgh, Ward, Elihu B. Washburn, Wdliam B. Washburne, Wha- 
ley, Wheeler, Williams, Wilder, Wilson, Wiudon, Woodbridge, Yeaman 
—98. 

Nays — Messrs. JAMES C. ALLEN, William J. Allen, Ancova, Au- 
gustus C. Baldwin, Bliss, Brooks, Chanler, Clay, Co froth, Cox, Cravens, 
Dawson, Dennison, Eden, Edgerton, Eldridge, English, Finck, Orider, 
Hirding, Harrington, Benjamin O. Harris, Charles M. Harris, Herrick, 
Holman, William Johnson, Kernan, Kiny, Knapp, Law, Lnear, Le Bloml, 
Long, Mallory, Marcy, McDowell, Mc Kinney, Wdliam H. Miller, James 
R. Morris, Morrison, Nelson, Noble, Odell, John O'Neill, PENDLE- 
TON, ROBINS ON, James S. Rollins, Ross, Scott, Stebliins, John R 



Steefa, Stuart, 8.wmt, Voorhee% Wadswortk, Chiitoa A. White, Joseph 
W. White, Winfield, Fernando Wood~59. , 

Yeas — Union, 92; Democrats, 6. 

Nay a— Union, ; Democrats, 59. 

STB&OTIATIONS WITH TRAITORS IN ARMS. 

The Copperheads vote for three Commissioners, by name, to meet three 
traitors in arms against our Government to negotiate for peace, and in 
the meantime have an armistice, thus acknowledging the rebel govern- 
ment. 

1864 — February 29, Mr. Alexander Lohg, of Ohio, submitted the fol- 
lowing resolution : 

Whereas, History teaches that there never has been a civil war that 
was not settled in the end by compromise, and in as much as no possible 
harm can result either to the character or dignity of the United States 
from an honest effort to stop the effusion of fraternal blood, and restore 
the Union by the return of the States in rebellion to their allegiance un- 
der the Constitution ; an<4 tohereas, the President, with a full knowledge of 
the lessons taught by history in relation to all civil wars, m his inaugural 
address said, " suppose you go to war, you cannot fight always ; and when, 
after much loss on both sides, and no gain on either, you cease fighting, 
the identical oid questions as to teims of intercourse are again upon you ;" 
and v/hereas, we now have an armistice, decreed by the Almighty, and 
executed for the past two months by the snows and ice of winter, thereby 
affording time and opportunity for reflection upon the past three years of 
horrible, relentless and destructive civil war, with all its calamities, and a 
prospective view of increased horrors in the approaching conflicts; and 
whereas, a preamble and resolutions were ou the 7th of February, instant, 
introduced in the House of Representatives of the Confederate Congress 
at Richmond, denying the statement of the President of the United 
Statts, " that no propositions for peace had been made to the United 
States by the Confederate States," and affirming that such propositions 
were prevented from being made by the President of the United States, in 
that he had refused to hear, or even to receive, the two Commissioners ap- 
pointed to treat expressly for peace ;' therefore, 

Be it resolved, That the President be, and he is hereby, most earnestly 
but respectfully, requested to appoint Franklin Pierce, of New Hampshire, 
Millard Fillmore, of New York, Thomas Ewing, of Ohio, and such other 
perbons as the President may see proper to select, as Commissioners on be- 
half of the United States, who shall be empowered to meet a commission 
of like number when appointed for the same object on behalf of the Con- 
federate States, at such time and place as may be agreed upon, for the 
purpose of ascertaining, before the renewal of hostilities shall have agaiu 
commenced, whether the war shall not now cease, and the Union be re- 
stored by the return of all the States to their allegiance and their rights 
under the Constitution. 

Which was rejected — yeas 22, nays 96, as follows : 

Yeas — Messrs. JAMES C. ALLEN, Ancona, Brooks, Coffroth, Den- 
nison, Eden, Eldridge, Finck, Knapp, Long, McDowell, William H. Mil- 
ler, Morrison, John O'Neill, PENDLETON, Samuel J. Randall, Rog- 
ers, Ross, Stiles, Strouse, Voorhees, Chilton A. Wkite — 22. 

Nays— Messrs. Alley, Allison, Ames, Anderson, Arnold, Ashley, Augusr 
las C. Baldwin, Joho D. Baldwin, Bater, Jaco'n B. Blair, Blow, Boutwell, 
Boyd, Brandegee, William G. Brown, Ambrose W. Clark, Freeman Clarke, 
Cobb, Cole, Creswell, Henry Winter Davis, Dawes, Deming, Dixon, Don- 



nelly, Driggs, Duniont, Eekley, Eliot, Farnswortb, Fenton, Frank, Ganson, 
Garfield, "Griuceil, Grisivold, Hale, Higby, Holman, Hooper, Hotcbkiss, 
John H. Hubbard, Ifutchins,Jei\ckes, Juliau,Kelley, Orlando Kellogg, Ker- 
nan, King, LoaD, Lovejoy, Marvin, McBride, McClurgj Milndoe, Samuel 
F. Miller, Moorhead, Morrill, Daniel Morris, Amus Myr-rs, Leonard Myers, 
Nelson, Norton, Charles O'Neill, Perham, Pike, Porntroy, Price, Radford, 
William H. Randall, John H. Rice, Schenck, Scofield, Shannon, Sloan, 
Smith, Smithers, Spaulding, Starr, Stebbins, John B. Steele, Stevens, 
Thayer, Thomas, Tracy, Upson, Van Valkenburgh, Wadsworth, Elihu B. 
Wasbburne, William B. Washburn, Whaley, Williams, Wilder, Wilson, 
Windoin, Winfield, W T oodbridge — 96. 

Yeas — Union, ; Democrats, 22. 

Nays — Union, 83 ; Democrats, 13. 

DEGRADING PROPOSITION OF MR. LE BLOND. 

The Copperheads voted that there should be no draft of new troops to 
fill up the broken ranks of our noble soldiers in the field, until the Presi- 
dent has degraded the country by requesting "an armstice," and appoint- 
ing commissioners to negotiate peace with the bloody-handed rebels in 
arms against the Government, thereby acknowledging the bogus confede- 
racy of Jeff. Davis. Soldiers in the field, the Copperhead candidate for 
Vice President, GEO. H. PENDLETON, thus voted your ranks should 
not be filled, except upon conditions that would crjjnson with shame the 
cheek of every loyal man in the country. 

1864, June 20, on the final passage of the Enrollment Bill, Mr. Le Blond, 
of Ohio, offered this proviso : 

Pvovided, That no levy of troops shall be made under the provisions of 
this act, except by volunteering, till such time as the President of the 
Uuited Siates ^shall have made a request for an armstice; and shall have 
made such efforts as are consistent with honor to restore harmony among 
the States, by the appointment of commissioners empowered to negotiate 
for peace upon the terms of a restoration of the Uaion under the Consti- 
tut on, and until such offer shall have been rejected by the so-called Con- 
federate Government. 

Which was rejected — yeas 13, nays 91 ; as follows: 

Yeas — Messrs. Ancona, Bliss, Edgerion, Eldridge, Finck, William John- 
son, Long, James R.Morris, Noble, John O'Neill, PENDLETON, Chil- 
ton A. White— 13. 

Nays — Messrs. Alley, Allison, Ames, Ashley, Baily, John D. Bald win 
Beaman, Jacob B. Blair, Boutwell, Broomall, James S. Brown, William G 
Brown, Cobb, Cole, Cresswell, Dawes, Dixon, Donnelly, Driggs, Eekley 
English, Farnswortb, Fenton, Frank, Ganson, Garfield, Gooch, Griswold 
Hale, Harding, Higby, Hooper, Hotchkiss, Asahel W. Hubbard, Ingersoll 
Jetickes, Julian Kalbjleisch, Keiley, Kernan, Littlejohu, Loan, Longyear 
Mallory, McAllister, McBride, McClurg, Samuel F. Miller, Moorhead 
Morrill, Amos Myers, Leonard Myers, Norton, Odell, Charles O'Neill 
Orth, Patterson, Radford, Randall, Alexander H. Rice, John H. Rice, Ed 
ward H. Rollins, Schenck, Scofield, Shannou, Sloan, Smithers, Spalding 
Stevens, Stuart, Sweat, Thayer, Thomas, Tracy, Upson, Van Valkenburgh 
Wadsworth, Elihu B. Wasbburne, William B. Washburn, Webster, Wha_ 
ley, Wheeler, Williams, Wilder, Wilson, Windom, Winfield, Wood, 
bridge — 91. 

Yeas — Union, ; Democrats, 13. 

Nats — Union, ?5 ; Democrat*, 16. 



6 

COPPERHEADS DON'T WANT THE MURDEROUS GUERRILLAS PUNISHED. 

1864, May 18, these proceedings took place. 

Mr. Garkield— -I ask the unanimous consent of the House to report 
back a bill from the Committee on Military Aff iirs. It is a measure of 
very great importance to the army at this time, and will not, I think, oc- 
casion debate. It is for the punishment of guerrillas in the. lines of the 
army in a single provision that Commanders in the field shall have final 
jurisdiction of these cases as they now have in Court-martial, anil not be 
compelled to send such cases to Washington, thus causing serious delay. 
The bill is asked for by the War Department, and is unanimously recom- 
mende by the Committee on Military Affairs. 

The bill (LI. R. No. 429) was read for information. Is is to provide for 
the mc e speedy puuishmeut of guerrillas, and for other purposes. It en- 
acts tbj the provisions of the 2 1st section of an act entitled "An act for 
enrollin and calling out the national forces," approved March 3, 18G3, 
shall app.y as well to the sentences of military commissions as to those of 
eourls-manial ; and authorizes the Commanding-Generd in the field, or the 
Commander of the Depaitment, as the case may be, to carry into execu- 
tion all senteuces against guerrilles for robbery, arson, burglary, rape, as- 
sault wiih intent to commit rape, violations of the laws and customs of 
war, ifec. 

The second section enacts that every officer authorized to Order a gen- 
eral court-martial shall have power to pardon or mitigate any puni hment 
ordered by such court, including that of confinement in the penitentiary, 
except the sentence of death, or of cashiering or dismissing an officer, which 
sentences it shall be competent, during the continuance of the preseut re- 
bellion for the Geueral Commanding the army in the field, or the Depart- 
ment Commander, as the case may be, to remit or mitigate; and it repeals 
the 5th section of the act approved July 17, 1802, chapter 201, so far as 
it relates to sentences of imprisonment in the penitentiary. 

The question was taken, and it was decided in the affirmative — yeas 72, 
nays 37, as follows : 

Yeas — Messrs. Alley, Allison, Ames, Arnold, Ashley, Baily, John D. 
Baldwin, Beaman, Blaine, Jacob B. Blair, Bioomall, Ambrose W. Clark, 
Cobl», Cole, Cicswell, Dawes, Dixon, Donnelly, Driggs, Farnsworth, Fen- 
ton, Frank, Garfield, Gooch, Griunell, Griswold, Hale, Hooper, Hotchkiss, 
A*ahel W. Hubbard, Johu H. Hubbard, Hulburd, Ingersoll, Jenckes. Ju- 
lian, Kelley, Francis W. Kellogg, 0>lando Kellogg, Littlejohn, Lougyear, 
Marvin, Mclndoe, Samuel F. Miller, Moorhead, Morrill, Daniel Morris, 
Amos Myers, Cowries O'Neil!, Orth, Patterson. Perham, Price, Alexander 
H. Rice,John Rice, El ward H. Rollins, Scofield, Shannon, Sloan, Smith- 
ers, Spalding Thayer, Tncy, Epson, Elihu B. Washburne, William B. 
Washburn, '* naley, Williams, Wilder, Wilson, Wiudom, and Woodbridge 
—72. 

Nays — essrs. JAMBS C. ALLEN, Acona, Bailey, Augustus C. 
Baldwin, tfliss, Croffroth, Cravens, Henry Winter Davi*, Dawson, Deni- 
son, Eden, Edgzrton, Eldridge, Fink, Grider, Harding, Harrington, 
Charles M. Harris, Hutchins, King, Knapp. Le Blond, Long, Mallory, 
Marcy, McDowell, Morrison, Noble, PENDLETON, Perry, ROBIN- 
SON, Rogers, Ross, S (rouse, Voorhees, Wadsworth, Chilton J. White, 
andJosei)h W. White — 37. 

COPPERHEADS DON'T WANT THE SOLDIERS AND SAILORS TO HA. VE 
HOMESTEADS FROM LANDS CONFISCATED IN THE INSURLiCTiONARY 
STATES. 

1864 — May 12. — The House passed a bill to secure to persons in 



military or naval service of the United States, homesteads from confiscat- 
ed States in insurrectionary dis-tiicts. Yvas 7G, nays 65; a? follows: 

Yeas — Mess»«. Alley, Allison, Ames, Anderson, Ashley, John I). Ba'd- 
win, B;.xter, Beaman, Buutwell, Boyd, Brandt-gee, Broomall, Ambrose W. 
Ch.rk, Freeman Clarke, Cole, Cieswell, Henry Winter Davis, Dawes, 
Deming. Driggs, Farusworth, Fenton, Gai field, Gooeh, Grinnell Male, 
H>ghy,"Hooper, Hotehkiss, Asahel, W Hubbard, Johu II. Hubbard, Calvin 
T. Hubbard, Jenckcs, Julian, Keiley, Francis W. Kellogg, Orlando Kel- 
logg, Littkjohn, Loan, Longyear, McBride, McClurg, Mclndce, Samuel F. 
Miller, Moorliead, Morrill, Daniel Morris, Amus Myers, Leonrad Myers, 
Norton, Charles O'Neill, Ortii, Patterson, Peihain, Bike, Pormroy, Price, 
Alexander H. Rice, John H. Rice, Edward II. Roilius, St hence, Schofield, 
Shannon, Sloan, Smithers, Spaulding, Stevens, Tracy, Upson, Van Val- 
kenburgh, Ellihu B. Washburne, William B. Washburn, Wilder, Wilson, 
Windotn, Woodbridge. — 70. 

Nays. — Messrs. William J. Allen, Sydenham E. Ancona, Joseph Baily, 
Augustus C. Baldwin, Jacob B. Blair, Bliss, Brooks, James S. Brown, 
William G. Brown, Chanter, Cojfroth, Cox, Cravens, Dawson, Edin, 
Edgerton, Eldridge, English, Finck, Grider, Griswold, Hall, Harding, 
Harrington, Benjamin G. Harris, Her rick, Hutchins, Philip Johnson, 
William Johnson, Kalbjleisch, Kernan % King, Law, Lazear, Long, Mullory, 
Marcy, McAllister, McDowell, McKinhey, Middleton, William H. Miller, 
James R. Morris, Morrison, Nelson, Noble, Odell, John CNeil, PEN- 
DLETON, Pruyn, ROBINSON, James S. Rollins, Ross, Scott, John 
B. Steele, Stiles, Strouse, Stuart, Fiancis Thomas, Voorhees, Wadsworth, 
Wlialey, Wheeler, Fernando Wood, Yeaman — 65. 

Yeas — Union, 76; Democrats, 0. 

Nays — Democrats, 61 ; Union, 4. 

COPPERHEADS DON'T PAY THE COLORED MAN WHO IS RISKING HIS 
LIFE TO SUSTAIN AND UPHOLD OUR OOD-GIVEN GOVERNMENT. 

1863 — Dec. 21. — During the consideration of the Deficiency Bill. 

Mr Aaron Harding, of Kentucky, offered this proviso: 

u Provided, That no part of the money aforesaid shall be applied to the 
raising, aiming, equiping or paying of negro soldiers." 

Which was rejected. Yeas, 41 ; nays, 105. 

The Yeas were as follows : 

Messrs. S. E. Ancona, George Bliss, James S. Brown, Alexander H. 
Coffroth, Samuel S. Cox, John L. Dawson, Charles Denison, John R. Eden, 
Joseph K. Edgerton, Charles A. Eldridge, Wi Ilium Finck, Henry Grider, 
William A. Hall, Aaron Harding, Henry W. Harrington, Benjamin G. 
Harris, Charles M. Harris, Philip Johnson, William Johnson, Austin A. 
King, Anthony L. Knapp, John Laiv, Alexander Long, Daniel Marcy, 
John F. Mc Kinney, Wiliam H. Mdler, James R. Morris, William R. 
Morrison, Warren P. Noble, John O'Neill, GEORGE H PENDLE- 
TON, Samuel J. Randall, Andrew J. Rogers, Lewis W. Ross, John G. 
Scott, John D. Stiles, Myer Strouse, John T. Stuart, Chilton A. White, 
Joseph W. White, George H. Yeaman. All Democrats. 

COPEERAEADS DON'T WANT THE ENROLLMENT BILL PASSED AND 
THE RANKS OF OUR ARMY FILLED UP. 

The following is the final vote in tLe House on the passage of the En- 
rollment bid : 

Yeas — Messrs. Allison, Ames, Arnold, Ashley, John D. Baldwin, Bax- 
ter, Beaman, Blair, Buutwell, Boyd, Cobb, Cole, Cieswell, Henry Winter 
Davis, Dawes Deming, Dixon, Driggs, Eckley, Elliot, Famsworth, Fenton, 
Garfield, Goocb, Higb.y A Hooper, Hotchkiss, A. W. Hubbard, Ingeraoll; 



Jencks, Julhn, Keljy, Littlejohn, Loan, Longyear, McBride, McCIurg, 
Samuel F. Miller, Mo>iehead, Morrill, Daniel Morris, Amos Myers, Leon- 
ard Myers, Norton, Cuarh-s O'Neill, Orth, William tl. Randdl, John H. 
Rice, Schenck, Shannon, Sloan, Smith, Sraithors, Spalding, Tracy, Upson, 
Van Valkenburgh, Eiihu B Wa>hburne, William B. Washburn, Wnaley, 
Wiliiams, Wilder, Wdson, Windom, Woodbridge — 66. 

Nats — Messrs. William J. Allen, Alley, Ancona, Baily, Blaine, Bliss, 
Chanter, Coffroth, Cox, Dawson, Denison, Eden, Edgerton, Eldridge, 
English, Frank, Ganson, Grisw Id, Benjamin O. Harris, Charles M. 
Harris, Hutchins, Kernan, Knapp, Law, Lazear, LeBlond, Long, Mallory, 
Marcy, Milton, William H. Miller, James R. Morris, Morrison, Noble, 
Odell, Patterson, PENDLETON, Peiham, Pruyn, Samuel J. Randall, 
Alexauder H. Rice, ROBINSON, Edward PI. Rollins, J. S. Rollins, 
Ross, SchofieU, John B. Steele, W. G. Steele, Stevens, Stiles, Thomas, 
Wadsworth, Webster, Wheeler, Winjield — 55. 

Yeas — Union, 66 ; Democrats, 0. 

Nays— -Union, 10 ; Democrats, 45. 

COPPERHEADS DON'T WANT THE ENROLLMENT ACT ENFORCED IN 
PENNSYLVANIA UUT WANT TO GO TO LAW ABOUT IT; 

1863, December 22, Mr. Ppilip Johnson, of Pennsylvania, offered the 
following resolution. / 

Whereas, The supreme judicial tribunal of the State of Pennsylvania 
has solemnly decided that, the act of Congress, approved March 3, 1863, 
commonly called the Conscription Act, is, in its provisions, contrary to 
and in violation of the Constitution of the United States, and therefore null 
and void ; therefore, 

Resolved, That it is the sworn duty of the Executive Department of the 
Government to either acquiesce in that»decision within that State, or to 
bring the question involved before the Supreme Court of the United States 
for final adjudication, to the eud that, if Congress shall deem such legisla- 
tion necessary, a bill may be prepared which shall not be subject to con- 
stitutional objections. •*.* 

Which, on motion of Mr. Brandegee, of Connecticut, was laid on the 
table — yeas 81 ; nays 42 — as follows : > 

Yeas — Messrs. Alley, Ailison, Amos, Anderson, Arnold, Ashley, Baily, 
John D. Baldwin, Beaman, Bout well, Boyd, Brandegee, Broomall, Am- 
brose W. Clark, Freemnn Clarke, Cobb, Cole, Creswell, Henry Winter 
Davis, Dawes, Deming, Dixon, Donnelly, Driggs, Dumont, Evkley, Eliot. 
Friniswoith, Fenton, Frank, Ganson, Gouch, Grinneil, Hale, Higby, Hoop- 
er, Hotchkiss, Ashael W. Hubbaid, Jeuckes, Julian, K*sson, Kernan, Long- 
year, Lov<-joy, McClurg, Mclndoe, Samuel F. Miller, Moorehead, Morrill. 
Daniel Morris, Amos Myers, Leouard Myers, Norton, Odell, Charles O'Neill, 
Orth, Pike, Price, William H. Rindall, Alexander H. Rice, John H. Rice, 
Edward H. Rollins, Schenck, Scofield, Shannon, Sloan, Smith, Smithers. 
Spalding,Stevens, Thomas Tracy, Upson, Van Valkenburgh, Elihu B. Wash- 
burne, William H. Washburn, Williams, Wilder, Windom, Winfield — 81. 

Nays — Messrs. Acona, Augustus C. Baldwin, Blus, Brooks, Coffroth, 
Cox, Dawson, Denison, Eden, Edgerton, Eldridge, Finch, Grider, Hall, 
Harding, Benjamin G. Harris, Charles M. Harris, Holman, Philip John- 
son, William Johnson, Le Blond, Lonq, McDozvell, McKinney, Middletoi 
Morrison, Nelson, Noble, O'Neill, PENDLETON, Perry, Rogers, Ross, 
Scott, John B. Steele, W '-ilium G. Steele, Stiles, Strouse, Sweet, Wheeler, 
Chilton A. While, Joseph W. White, Fernando Wood — 43. 

Yeas — Union, 76 ; Democrats. 5. 

Nats — Union, 0; Democrats, 43. 






leave pope to get out of 
his scrape; 

McClelland dispatcher 



On the 20th day of August, 1862, Gen. McCkellaa, haviog 

T.eLminatecLhis unfortunate campaign, left the Virginia Pen- 
insula and embarked his army at Fortrt A! n roe, York- 
town, and Newport News. 

The entire rebel army was thus free to precipitate itself 
upon Pope's small command of 3f»,00U men, and the bulk 
of its forces had in fact, moved upon Pope several days 
before 

Fully aware of this and naturally anxious as to the result,. 
Gen. Halleck telegraphed Gen. Pope on 21st August: 

Dispute every inch of ground, and fight like the devil till we can reinforce 
you. Forty-eight hours more and we can make yon strong enough I Don't 
yield an inch if you can help ait. 

Pope obeyed his instructions, falling back aud lighting 
every inch of ground until he confronted the entire rebel 
army at Manassas. With what result, the country knows. 

But what the country does not know is how it happeued 
that the small army at Manassas should be allowed to be 
outnumbered, while the large and well appointed force of 
McClellan lay, during the three days' struggle, within march - 
ing distance, almost motionless. , 

Gen. McClellan prefaced his report of the Antietam cam- 
paign by stating that — 

The troops composing the Army of the Poiuniue were meau while ordered 
forward to reinforce the army under Gen. Pope. So completely was thia order 
. arried out, that on the 30th of August I had remaining under my command 
only a camp guard of about one hundred men. Everything else had been sent 
r,o reinforce Gen. Pope. In addition, I exhausted a!l the means at my disposal 
to forward supplies to that officer, my own headquarter teams even being used 
for that purpose. 

Is this or not one of those specious statements that keep 
the word of promise to the ear and break it to the sense ? 
Is it true, or is it a delusion aud a snare ? 

Did Gen. McClellan really send troops and rations to Gen, 
Pope in his sore distress ? 

Did he send them expecting them to reach him ? 

Did he desire that they should reach him? 



£*s 



K : 



'1 



Did he or not purposely prevent their reaching him? 
low, we shall not answer these vital questions with the 
testimony of Gen. Pope, or of any his army ; nor yet with 
the inexorable array of facts and crushing logic of the Com- 
mittee on the Conduct of the War. We propose simply that 
Gen. McClellan himsetf, speaking in his official dispatches, 
shall reply to them. 

On the 27th of August, 1862, Gen. Pope, in compliance 
with his instructions, after fighting the enemy live days on 
the upper Rappahannock, fell back towards Washington. 
Halleck, who knew the entire rebel army was upon him, had 
promised heavy reinforcements from the Army of the Poto 
mac. Upon their reaching Pope depended the safety of 
his army, and perhaps that of the Capital. No one was 
more keenly alive than Gen. Halleck to the importance of 
strengthening Pope, and, accordingly, on the morning of 
August 27th, 1863, he telegraphed to Gen. McClellan, 
through whom alone all reinforcements for Pope must pass, 
to have Franklin's corps march in the direction of Manassan. 
as soon as possible. 

The order is clear and definite. If it had been obeyed, 
Jackson's forces, defeated and driven by Pope on the 27th, 
would have been met near Centreville the next afternoon 
by Franklin, and crushed ! Now follow the developments 
of the next three days, and see with what fertility of device, 
prodigality of invention, and coolness of assumption — *with 
what unyielding tenacity, shameless prevarication, aud rank 
insubordination — Gen. McClellan carried out his steadfast 
purpose, that Pope should not have a man of these reinforce- 
ments — not an ounce of powder, not a loaf of bread, aud that 
with his 4(7,000, struggling in a death-grapple with that same 
rebel army that had discomfitted McClellan's 150,000, he 
might be left to get out of his scrape. This choice phraseolo- 
gy, we hasten to remark, is not ours, but that of Gen. McClel- 
lan, who proposed to the President " to leave Pope to get out of 
his scrape." 

Plain enough was Halleck's order, yet it never was execu- 
ted ! Thus it fell out. At 10.40 McClellan replied that he 
had sent orders to Franklin (not to march, but) to prepare to 
march, and to repair to Alexandria in person, to inform him 
as to his means of transportation. Singular, that ia order 
that Franklin should march with his eoi'ps, he should begin 
by leaviug it ! Was there no Quartermaster to attend to 
transportation? At 12 m., Halleck telegraphed to McClel- 
lan, "Franklin's corps should move out by farced marches, 
carrying three or four days' provisions," to which McClellan 
replies that Franklin had gone to Washington, and that his 



aid gave the order to the next m rank ; and later that "Frank- 
lin's artillery had no horses." 

Will it not be well to push Sumnor's corps here by water as rapidly as possi- 
ble, to make immediate arrangements for placing the works in front of Wash- 
ington in an efficient condition of defence. I have no means of knowing the 
enemy's force between Pope and ourselves. Can Franklin, without his artille- 
ry or cavalry, effect any useful purpose in front? Should notBurnside at once 
take steps to evacuate Falmouth and Acquia, and at the same time cover the 
retreat of any of Pope's troops who may fall back in that direction ? I do not 
see that we have force enough on hand to form a connection with Pope, whose 
exact position we do not know. Are we safe in the direction of the valley ? 

True to himself and sensible to the last ! Stay in the 
works — the front is a dangerous place ! Sitting at the feet 
of such a Gamaliel, is it strange that Porter learned to say, 
as he told McDowell, pointing to the enemy, "We cannot go 
in there without getting into a fight." And so the 27th of 
August passed away, and brought Pope no reinforcements. 

Thursday, August 28th, 1862. — On the morning of the 
28th Halleck telegraphed directly to Franklin : 

On parting with Gen. McClellan, about two o'clock this morning, it was un- 
derstood that you were to move with your corps to-day toward Manassas Junc- 
tion, to drive the enemy from the railroad. I have just learned that the Gen- 
eral has not returned to Alexandria. If you have not received his order, act 
on this. 

At 1.05 McClellan, not Franklin, answered : 

Your dispatch to Franklin received. I have been doing all possible to hur- 
ry artillery and cavalry. The moment Franklin can be started with a reason- 
able amount of artillery, he shall go. ****** Please see Barnard, 
and be sure the works toward Chain Bridge are perfectly secure. I look upon 
those works, especially Etkan Allen and Marcy, as of the first importance. 

Still harping on my daughter. "Be sure the works are 
perfectly secure !" At 3.30 p. in., Halleck becomes impatient, 
and telegraphs McClellan : 

Xot. a moment must be lost in pushing as large a force as possible toward Ma- 
nassas, so as to communicate with Pope before the enemy is reinforced. 

The day wears away, and still Franklin does not move ; so 
at 8.40 p. m., Halleck, more impatient, decided, and imper- 
ative, tells McClellan : 

There must be no further delay in moving Franklin's corps towards Manas- 
sas ; they must go to-morrow morning, ready or not ready. If we delay too long 
to get ready, there will be no necessity to go at all, for Pope will either be de- 
feated or victorious without our aid. If there is a want of wagons, the men must 
carry provisions with them till the*wagons can come to their relief. 

To which McClellan replies at 10 p. m. : 

Your dispatch received. Franklin's corps has been ordered to march at 6 
o'clock to-morrow morning. Sumner has about 14,000 infantry, without cav- 
alry or artillery here. 

And so Gen. Pope is left to get out of his scrape. Gens. 
McClellan aad Franklin sleep comfortable within snug quar- 
ters, and the 28th of August, 1862, passes into history. 

Friday, August 29th, 1862.— At 10.30 a. m., General 



McClellan resumes the chant of his well worn refrain, hie 
campaign Kyrie Eleison ! 

Franklin's corps is in motion , started about six (6) a. m. If Sumner mores 
Ti support of Franklin, it leaves us without any reliable troops in and near 
Washington : vet Franklin is too much alone. What shall be done? I do not 
'hink Franklin is in a situation to accomplish much if he meets strong resist 
fl!»ce. I should not harp moved him but for your pressing orders of last night. 

" What shall be done?" 

Pope, at that moment was not asking such questions, he 
was up and doing. 

"What shall be d®ne" ? 

Only to think of these horrid rebels ofT'eriug " strong re- 
sistance" to Franklin ! Heavens ! Gen. Halleck this is not. 
what I intended my army for ! Strong resistance ! ! Good 
God, sir, somebody will surely get killed, and you are not 
so unreasonable as to suppose that I am going to sacrifice 
my future yoters to save John Pope and — — my country, 
he would have added, " but amen stuck in his throat." But 
with what matchless coolness he tells Halleck that all his 
promises throughout the two previous days to send Frank- 
lin forward, were unvarnished falsehoods! u I should not 
have moved him but for your pressing orders last night!" 

Economize your patience, though, gentle reader, and re 
strain your profanity, if you have any weakuess in that 
direction, for here is something that will sorely try both. 

At 12 in., McClellan telegraphs Halleck: 

" Do you wish the movement of Franklin's corps to continue 7 He i? ^ith 
out reserve ammunition and without transportation." 

The man who makes himself hoarse vainly calling by the 
hour for some lazy shirk of a servant who, finally, comes 
asking with placid ease, " Did you call, sir," may rrave some 
faint idea of General Hal leek's feelings when he received 
that despatch. 

Pray notice the statement, that Franklin is without trans- 
portation. It is a remarkable one in the light of facts well 
known at the time to McClellan, and which we shall pres- 
ently develop. 

At 12 m., McClellan telegraphs Halleck: 

" ' ranklin has only between 10,000 and? 11,000 ready for duty. How far do 
you wish this force to advance? 1 ' 

And again at 1 o'clock. 

' Shall I do as seems best to me with all the troops in this vicinity, inclu- 
ding Franklin, who, I really think ought not, under the present circumstances 
to proceed beyond Anandale ?" 

The writer of that despatch has solemnly declared in an 
official report that he 4 ' completely carried out the order to 
reinforce General Pope ; that he had scut everything; that 



he only retained a camp guard of one hundred men !" 
Judge for yourself, reader. 

At 3 p. fn., Gen. Halleck, who must certainly possess an 
angelic disposition, musters nerve to tell the Young Napo- 
leon : 

/ want Franklin's corps to go far enough to find out something about the enemy. 
Ferhaps he may get such information at Anandale as to prevent his going 
further ; otherwise, he will push on toward Fairfax. Try to get something 
from direction of ManSssas, either by telegrams or through Franklin's* scouts. 
Our people must move more actively, and find out where the enemy is. I am 
tired of guesses. 

"■ Our people must find out where the encm;j is !" During the 
entire days of August 29th and 30th, the thunders of nearly 
three hundred pieces of artillery shook the ground under 
McClellan's feet. All Alexandria knew precisely where the 
enemy was and where the fighting was. But General Mc- 
Clellan could not make the discovery. 

There is one grand, overruling and guiding military prin- 
ciple that overrides conflicting orders or supplies their total 
absence. It is the Napoleonic maxim — " March to the sound 
of the cannon." The neglect of it by Grouchy, cost the 
Emperor Waterloo. Has it never been heard of by General 
McClellan ? 

Every drummer boy in Franklin's, Sumner's, and Cox's 
corps knew the situation, knew that the enemy had concen- 
trated, knew that Pope had been fighting them for two days. 
General McClellan alone, of all his army, did not know it, 
could not see it ; so Halleck's last dispatch remains unan- 
swered. 

And now we are about to present the most remarkable — 
we weigh and emphasize the words — the most remarkable 
dispatch ever framed by man wearing a soldier's uniform ! 
We pause a moment before doing it, that our readers may 
prepare for a sensation at once novel and painful — a pang of 
shame for our country and our humanity — a feeling of pro- 
found horror and contempt for the man who c»uld perpe- 
trate it. At 2.45 p. m., Gen. McClellan, in answer to a 
dispatch from the President asking, " What news from direc- 
tion of Manassas Junction," telegraphed — 

The last news I l'eceived from direction of Manassas was from stragglers. 
to the effect that the enemy were evacuating Centrevillc and retiring toward 
Thoroughfare Gap. This is, by no means, reliable. I am clear that one of 
two courses should be adopted : First — To concentrate all our available forces 
to open communication with Pope. Second — To leave Pope to get out of his 
scrape, and at once use all means to make the Capital perfectly safe. No mid- 
dle course will now answer. Tell me what you wish me to do, and I will do 
all in my power to accomplish it. I wish to know what my orders and au- 
thority are. I ask for nothing, but will obey whatever orders you give. 1 
only ask a prompt decision, that I r»ay at once give the necessary orders. It 
will not do to delay longer. 



6 

• 

Cornmeat there can be noDe. Nothing short of the power 
of a-Macauley would avail here, to do this infamy justice. 
And we can only feebly indicate-— pointing to the " bad emi 
uence" on which it stands: — the more striking point of its 
weakness. The man is satisfied — for what he hopes, he 
would fain believe — that Pope is or will be defeated. He 
suggests two eowrses, which, after all, are substantially one 
and the same, for he well knows that Lee's junction with 
Jackson is certain. He can trust Porter tor that. In either 
case, he is sure " to /cave Pope to get out of his scrape." 

Consider the latter part of the despatch in the light of the 
previous two days' transactions. 

" Tell me what you wish me to do." Why, for two days and 
a half the wires have not ceased their monotonous th rob- 
bings under the reiterated order to send Franklin forward. 

" 1 ask for nothing, but will obey whatever orders you give." 

He asks for nothing! Oh, oertainly not; when just one 
hour and a half agone he insinuatingly despatches — " shall 1 
do as seems best to wc -with all the troops in tJiis vicinity'.-" 

He appears to have been left entirely without orders too! 
" I wish to know what my orders and, authority are? No middle 
course will now answer. It will not elo to delay longer." 

This is the sublime of impudence, and ghastly work as 
it is, we cannot help smiling at its coolness. 

But what " scrape" of his own was Pope to get out of? 
Let us see. Is he a deserter, a straggler, or some incompe- 
tent soldier who has rushed into difficulty without or against 
orders ? How came he where he is? Thus : With a small 
army of 35,000, he threw himself down on the Rapidan — 
into the heart of the enemy, tearing of his very vitals — to 
compel him to loose his hold on the once noble and dispirited 
Army of the Potomac. He did it. McClellan's army of 
01,000 effective troops was freed. The entire rebel force 
was precipitated on the devoted Pope. He fought them for 
Hcv'enteen days in seven large battles, and skirmishes in- 
numerable, and with but small aid of troops and food for his 
starving men and horses, would have strangled the rebellion 
at Manassas. He was denied men, rations, and forage. Now 
we see. That was trie " scrape " Pope was left to get out of! 

At 7.50 p. m., Halleck discovering that Franklin still 
loiters, tells McClellan — 

You will immediately send construction train and guards to repair railroad 
lo Manassas. Let there be no delay in this. 1 have just been told that Frank- 
lin's corps stopped at Anandale, and that h» was this evening in Alexandria 
This is all contrary to my orders. Investigate and report the facts of thi3 
disobedience. Thai corps must push forward, as I directed, to protect the rail- 
road and open our communication with Manassas. 



And one hour afterward is answered by him : 

It was not safe for Franklin to move beyond Anandale, under the chvuai- 
vtances until we knew what was at Vienna. Gen. Franklin remained here 
until about 1 p. m., endeavoring to arrange for supplies for his commund 1 
am responsible for both these circumstances, and do not see that either was in 
disobedience to your orders. Please give distinct orders in reference to Frank 
lin's. movements of to-morrow. . 

And then, placidly, with an air of injured innocence — 

In regard to to-morrow's movements I desire definite insl ructions, as it is 
nut agreeable to nlfe to be accused of disobeying orders, when I have simply 
exercised the discretion you committed to mo. 

At teu that night, he advises Halleck that he has a des- 
patch frorn Franklin, stating that Pope is very short of pro- 
visions, and the country will not support him. 

And so closed Friday, August 29th. Pope had fought 
the rebel aTmy all that day, had driven them in defeat, and, 
with any one of the corps of Franklin, Sumner, Cox, or 
Couch, would have crushed it the next morning. But 
Franklin, ordered to move on the 27th, with but twenty- 
four miles between him and the battle-field, had, at the end 
of three days, advanced six miles ! We know of Western 
regiments, who hearing, thirty miles off, the thuuders of 
Shilth, stopped not to ask about transportation, but rushed 
forward, and were grappling with the foe in twenty hours ! 

Saturday, August 30, 1862, at 5, a. m., Gen. Pope telegraphs 
Gen. Halleck : 

I think you had better send Franklin's, (.'ox's, and Sturgis' regiments to 
fe'entreville, as also forage and subsistence. I received a note this morning 
from Gen. Franklin, written by order of Gen. McClellan, saying that wagon* 
and cars would be loaded and rent to Fairfax Station as soon a J- 
tend a cavalry escort to Alexandria to bring tnarn out. Such a request, w%ien Alex- 
andria is full of troops and tee ftghtiny the enemy, needs no comment. Will you 
nave these supplies sent, without the least delay, to Centreville ? 

Note that lie now had a certainty Porter would fail him. 
Neither Sumner, Franklin, Cox, Sturgis, nor Couch were up. 
His men and horses were starving, and he had McClellan ; s 
assurance that he would send him no relief. Lee had joined 
Jackson. The bloody struggle of the previous day was to be 
renewed with thinned ranks against superior forces. Self- 
reliant and possessed, calm and measured, he means to fight, 
and, in advance, is confident of his position after the battle. 
He knew it would be at Centreville. He would hold his 
ground, but could not pursue the enemy jf victorious. " Have 
these supplies sent to Centreville." And yet there was tune, 
when, at 9.40, Halleck telegraphed McClellan : 

I am by no means satisfied with Gen. Franklin's march of yesterckay, con- 
sidering the circumstances of the case. He was very wrong in stepping at 
Anandale. Moreover, I learned last night that the Quartermaster's Depart- 
ment could have given him plenty of transportation if he had applied for it 
any time since his arrival at Alexandria. He knew the importance of opening 
communication with Gen. Pope's army, and should have acted more promptly. 



8 

» 

On the 27th, McClellan makes Franklin leave his corps to 
come to Alexandria, in order that he (McClellan) may inform' 
him as to his means of transportation. 

On the 28th, he says Franklin is without transportation : 
but on the 29th instant, it appears from statement of the 
Quartermaster's Department, high and indisputable authority, 
that neither McClellan nor FranMin ever applied for trans- 
portation. 

At 11, a. m., McClellan telegraphs: 

Hav£ ordered Smmner to leave one brigade iu the vicinity of Chain Bridge, 
and to move the rest, via Columbia Pike, on Anandale and Fairfax Court 
House, if this is the route you wish them to take. He and Franklin are both 
instructed to join Pope as promptly as possible. Shall Conch move also when 
he arrives : 

With the thunder of battle in his ears, he wishes to know which 
way they shall move, Halleck's answer is crushing in its retort : 

Send them where the fighting is. 

And agaii, at 2.15, p. m,, Gen. Halleck telegraphs : 

Franklin's and Sumner's corps should be pushed forward with all possible 
dispatch. They must use their legs and make forced marches. Time noy> .s 
everything. 

But why go on? Given the programme, we know the play. 
" Leave Pope to get out of his scrape" sufficiently announces^that 
General's struggle with enemies in front, around, and in rear, a 
struggle disgraceful toothers, but glorious to him and his noble 
army! Here is his dispatch to Gen. Halleck on the morning 
after the three days' fighting at Manasses : 

Our troops are all here and in position, though much used up and worn 
oat. I think it would, perhaps, have been greatly better if Sumner and 
Franklin had been here three or four days ago. B»t you may rely upon our 
giving them (the enemy) as desperate a tight as I can force our men to stand 
tip to. I should like to know whether you feel secure about Washington, 
■should this army be destroyed. I shall fight it as long as a man will stand up 
to the work. You must judge what is to be done, having in view the safety 
of the Capital. The enemy is already pushing a cavalry reconnoissance in our 
front at Cub Run, whether in advance of an attack to-day I don't yet know 1 
send you this that you may know our position and my purpose. 

Is there any whining here about reinforcements? Any anx- 
iety as to getting behind the fortifications ? Are not these the 
words of a soldier and a patriot ? 

During the examination of Gen. Hallack before the Com- 
mittee on the Conduct of the War, he is asked this question : 

Had the Army of the Peninsula been brought to co-operate with the Army 
of Virginia with the utmost energy that circumstances would have per- 
mitted, in your judgment, as a military man, would it not have resulted incur 
victory instead of our defeat ? 

His reply was : 

I thought so at the time, and still think so. 

And so thinks every man who dispassionately reads this 
statement. Judge ye ! 

Printed and Stereotyped by McGn.1. & Witherow. Washington, D. C 



'\& public no. ConQrfS$ioT\A\ CoVntvv-VVe € , \^<&3 — 



SHALL WE HAVE AN ARMISTICE? 



SHALL WE HA YE AN ARMISTICE? 

The Democratic party, in Convention at Chicago assembled, have demanded 
this; it becomes, therefore, one of the distinct issues of the present political 
campaign. The question has been forced upon us ; we cannot escape it if we 
would ; it behooves us, therefore, to give it earnest, dispassionate consideration 
that in acting upon it we may do so intelligently, with an eye single to our 
country's glury and well beiug. 

Let us look at the resolution which presents this issue. Among other things 
it declares that 

" Justice, humanity, liberty, and the public welfare demand that im- 
" mediate efforts be made for the cessation of hostilities with a view 
" to an ultimate convention of all the states, or other peaceable 
* means, to the end that at the earliest practicable moment peace mat 
" be restored." 

This is something definite, something tangible — not like McClellan's letter 
ot acceptance, a jargon of "glittering generalities." Here we have a frank, 
outspoken expression of the sentiments which animated and controlled that 
Convention. We are told "justice, humanity, liberty, and the public welfare 
demand an armistice." For God's sake look at the absurdity of this thing ; and 
in doing so I charge you do not fail to remember all the history of this bloody 
war — how it came upon us — how there was no alternative left to us but war or 
national ruin and dishonor. 

Look back again upon the starving garrison at Fort Sumter, besieged, cut 
off from supplies, and finally bombarded by those who were seeking to wrest 
from us all we held dear as a nation. It was not until our glorious flag had 
been insulted, fired upon, and trampled in the dust; not until our forts and 
and arsenals, our navy yards and mints had been captured or robbed by the 
rebellious foe, that the slumbering manhood of the free North, was aroused, 
and she put forth her heroic energies to save the little remnant of liberty and 
government Buchanan and the rebels had left us. 

It was little more than the empty name of government they left us. They 
had seut our navy to distant shores, that the traitors might the better be en- 
abled to seize upon the forts, navy yards, and harbors stretching from the 
Potomac to the Rio Grande. They had robbed our arsenals of their arms (the 
accumulations of many years of peace) in order to enable the traitorous hosts 



2 

more effectively to resist the efforts of our heroic men when at last this hide- 
ous wickedness and unparalelled infamy should become known. You wil 
remember too that ever memorable 19th of April, 1861, when the gallant sons 
©f Massachusetts, rushing to the defence of our imperiled capital, were shot down 
in the streets of Baltimore, by the minions of treason and slavery.. 

You will remember the history of all these years, and before you vote to " stop 
the war," to call back our heroic men from the work so Dobly commenced, so 
successfully and bravely prosecuted, you will insist upon gome good reason for 
yielding to this demand for your national humiliation. 

These men at Chicago, plotting your dishonor, gave you no warning of the 
results coming from this " cessation of hostilities." They did uot tell you that 
the rebels would be strengthened and you weakened thereby. They did not 
tell you what they surely know, that the exhausted and failing resources of the 
rebellion' needed this " suspension of hostilities." 

No, they cunningly and deliberately falsified this thing to you, saying " Jus- 
tice, humanity, liberty, and the public welfare demand it." Had their resolu- 
tion run thus : " Whereas, under the powerful and well dealt blows of Grant 
" and Shermau, of Farragut and other brave men of our army and navy, the 
" Rebellion is nearly brought to a close, and whereas, it is expedient that the 
"Rebels be allowed time to recruit their shattered forces and replenish their 
"wasted stores, therefore, Resolved, that immediate efforts be made for the 
cessation 6f hostilities," you would much better have understood its true 
meauing. 

Let us consider this question of an armistice. What is it ? What is meant 
by it? 

Is Wheaton's " International Law," by Lawrence, page 585, he says: 

" An armistice is the suspension of hostilities. This may be either special or general. 
If it be general in its application to all hostilities and in every place, and endrue for an 
indefinite period, it amounts in effect to a temporary peace, except that it leaves undecided 
the controversies in which the war originated." 

Again the same author, page 686, speaking of the consequence of an armis- 
tice and the rules by which the parties are bound during its continuance, says : 

"The first of these peculiar rules, as laid down by Vattel, is that each party may do 
■within his own territory, what he could do in time of peace. Thus either of the bellig- 
erent parties may levy and march troops, collect provisions and other munitions of war, 
reeeive reinforcements from his allies, or repair the fortifications of a place not actually 
besieged." 

" It amounts to a temporary peace," says Wheaton, " but it leaves the contro- 
versies in which the war originated undecided." Let the people determine 
whether they desire to leave undecided the controversies in which for the past 
four years we have been engaged. Let them decide whether we shall fight 
cover again the battles on land and sea which have added so much of glory and 
renown to our brave army and gallant navy. You have considered well the 
meanino- of that word armistice — let us analyze it ; let us put it in tangible 
shape so that you may see and know what yon give up to the rebellion if you 
concede to the traitors this boon of an armistice. 

1st. It amounts to a temporary peace. 

2d. It leaves undetermined the controversies in which the war originated. 
3d. The rebels may do in their own territory which they might do in time 
of peace. 



4th. They may levy and march troops, collect provisions and other munitions 
of war. 

5th. They may receive reinforcements from their allies and repair their shat 
tered fortifications. 

6th. It follows, therefore, as a necessary consequence that the blockade which 
has shut out the traitors from the commercial world, since the war began, would 
be broken up, and they again reip the advantages to be derived from an un- 
restricted trade with those nations that have evinced such active and earnest 
sympathy with them in their etforts to accomplish our national dissolution. 

Why do Copperheads, the friends and advocates of McClellan, demand this? 
It cannot be because the armies of the Uuion have been conquered ; not be- 
cause our resources in men and money are. exhausted ; not because we have not 
made wonderful progress in the suppression of the rebellion and won imperish- 
able glory for the Union arms both on laud and sea. They demand it because 
they desire the rebellion to succeed and see slavery restored ; because the rebel 
armies have been beaten in the field ; because their resources are exhausted, 
their armies diminished and demoralized, • their commerce destroyed, their 
finances tuined, their strongest forts recaptured, their harbors and pots block- 
aded by our navy and commanded by our guns, their foreign friends discouraged, 
their people disheartened, their country laid waste, and their products rend- 
ered worthless. They therefore need time to recuperate, to replenish their 
depleted treasury, to recruit and drill fresh armies, to build other ships of war, 
to convey their cotton to market and secure arms and other munitions of war; 
to strengthen the fortifications now in their possession, and erect others need- 
ful for their safety and defence ; to form alliances and make negotiations with 
foreign nations for a recognition of their nationality. 

They need time. Without time to recuperate their cause is lost, and they 
know it. Hence comes this demand from their northern allies for an armistice. 

Men of the North ! Soldiers of the Republic! do you want such a p ace? 
Are you willing that all your heroic devotion to liberty, and the Union, should 
result only in this temporary peace? If you want a peace worth having, one 
that will be permanent, a peace that comes to you unstained with national 
dishonor, then you will trample under your feet this proposition for a " temporary 
peace" which comes to you with the nomination of McClellan. 

Do you wish to leave the causes and controversies in which this war origi- 
nated undetermined ? 

Some of you, at least, believed that slavery was either the immediate or remote 
cause of the troubles which these years of self-sacrifice and war have brought 
to us. You haye cherished the hope, that with the end of the war the end of 
slavery should also come. You remember how, for many years, this curse has 
troubled the peace of the nation ; how it has made freedom of speech and free- 
dom of the press impossible; how it has debased and demoralized the na- 
tional politics; how it has caused the churches and ministers of religion to 
be faithless to the teachings of " Him who went about doing good, and who 
spoke as never man spake ;" how at last it broke out iu open and violent re- 
bellion, against the Constitution and laws, in order that its insatiate thirst for 
power might be satisfied; and slavery become 'alike lawful in all the S'ates, 
North as well as South, old as well as new." You, remember all these things, 
.and yet you are a.-ked to blot them from your memory, and restore, and re-esta- 



4 

blisli the institution which has been the fruitful source of all your woes. Those 
men at Chicago do not say this directly, but they hope to obtain some share of 
your sympathy and support, by pleading with you in the .name of "justice, 
humanity, liberty, and public welfare." They have not the manly courage to 
say to you that an armistice would result in the accomplishment of all the 
rebels have ever desired. They know that with the cessation of hostilities, 
would come negotiations for a permetient peace upon the basis of southern in- 
dependence, or if not that, at least additional guarantees to slavery. 

Let us not give up the advantages, which we have secured, after so many bloody 
battles, and so much heroic devotion. Let us not smother the old flame, leav- 
ing beneath the ashes which cover it the same fuel that kindled the conflagration 
which has threatened our national destruction for so many weary years. 

No, the war and the heroic moral courage of our President, have placed 
the institution of slavery " where the public mind will rest in the belief that it 
is in the course of ultimate detinction." There let it remain. Let no appeals 
for an armistice, or a temporary peace divert your attention from the labor of 
completing the work so gloriously begun. You have this wily serpent of 
slavery and treasou under your feet, and do not, as you value your country's 
life aud honor, allow traitorous appeals for a " cessation of hostilities" to divert 
you from your purpose to destroy him. 

Think of it ! The traitors, at the commencement of the rebellion, held un- 
disputed sway in Louisiana, Virginia, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, 
Arkansas, and Florida ; and also had control of portions of Kentucky, Mary- 
land, and Missouri. Do you wish to yield up those States, won back to the 
Government by so many well contested battles, both by land and sea ? Do 
you wish to throw open those States to the undisputed sway of those from 
whom they have been conquered ? Do ycu wish to give the enemy an absolute 
right to raise and f-quip, and march armies in those States? Do you wish him 
to enter, unharmed, into the vast grain fields of Maryland, Kentucky, Tennes- 
see, and Missouri and replenish his exhausted stores, and gain fresh strength 
for the contest, which must surely come when the armistice shall end ? Do 
you wish the rebels to again enter and possess the territory, over which Sher- 
man has won his way, after so much labor, and the shedding of so much pa- 
triotic blood ? 

Soldiers of the Army of the West, you who struggled with Grant 
at Fort Donaldson, at Shiloh, at Vieksburgh ; you who won undying renown 
at Stone River, under the courageous aud indomitable Rosecrans; you who 
have shared the glories of Lookout Mountain with the fighting "Joe Hooker;" 
you who have labored so patiently and h-Jroicly from Chattanooga to Atlantic, 
do you wish to give back to the rebellion-all that you have gained after such 
laborious and heroic service? If you do not, then spurn from your very pres- 
ence these men who come to you with proposals for an armistice or a "cessation 
of hostilities." During an armistice, says Vattel in his Law of Nations, page 
4'08, "each par!y may do iu his own territory what he may have a right to do 
in time of profound peace." And on page 410, he says: " Duiing the armis- 
" tice it is allowable for enemies to pass and repass, to and from each others 
" country, in the same manner as it is allowed in time of peace." 

Do you desire the return to the national capitol, of Jeff. Davis, and his asso- 
ciates unrestrained, uuharmed ? Do you desire to impart in every way 
ni'ew hope and strength to the waning life of the rebellion? Then you have 
but to vote for McClellan, and with him this armistice. Remember you can- 
not have one without sooner or later having the other, for however much Mc- 



Clellan may now seemingly ignore the platform upon which he was nominated 
should he be elected this delusion would end. He must, and would necessarily 
represent the desires and withes of the party that nominated and elected 
him. 

We have learned something of the hope that comes to the enemy by this 
armistice — let us now consider what advantage comes to us thereby. In the 
first place comes national humiliation, for by granting an armistice we confess 
our inability to compel them by force of arms to yield submission to the Con- 
stitution and the laws. You, who have been defending the Union against the 
assaults of its deadly enemies, believe that you have been doing battle in a holy 
cause, if you ask an armistice now, you give up the right foe the wrong. You 
reward disunion ; you punish loyalty ; you admit your inferiority ; you cry 
enough! and submit. Pause and consider, I pray you, the depth of our na- 
tional degradation after such a submission ! 

But this is not all we lose, though God knows if it were, it were sufficient to 
arouse th- withering indignation of any loyal man at the thought. For what 
is this ce?s ition of hostilities proposed ? " With a view," say they, " to a con- 
vention of all the States for the purpose of making peace." Such a conven- 
tion must be first called by a two-thirds vote of Congress, and the call after- 
wards ratified by three-fourths of the States. Now, this is an utter impossi- 
bility. Do you suppose, as has been eloquently asked by the venerable Dr. 
Breckenridge, that " after three or four years of war ; after spending two or 
"three thousand millions of dollars; after spelling the Wood of a million of our 
" brothers, and consigning five hundred thousand to their gaves ; after con 
" ing an extent of territory fifteen hundred miles in length by six hundred in 
" breadth ; having an army in every State in the Confederacy, and the majority 
"'of them under our control ; having taken every stronghold from them excert- 
" ing Charleston and Richmond ; that, notwithstanding all this, we will disgrace 
"ourselves, like a set of poltroons, to the latest generation of mankind, and 
"sacrifice everything we have fought for, and all that makes a free government 
" worth living for? No ? a thousand times no." 1 Every patriot heart will 
spurn the thought. 

But suppose such a thing possible. Have you thought of the long months 
that must elapse before such a convention cau assemble \ Have you thought 
of the time you would lose, and how your stronghold upon the rebellion would 
be relaxed ' How your armies would become demoralized aud impatient by 
the inaction and cblay which such a sf;ep involves? Those who ask this of 
you, are heart and soul in the interest of the trai or..-. They hope thereby to 
save them from utter defeat and absolute annihilation, to bring them back 
into the Union, with the old curse of slavery hanging like a mill-stone about 
their necks. Thai you may see that we indulge in no unwarrantable assertions, 
we ask you to consider who wants this armistice 1 Not " Honest Old Abe," 
who, as CommanderdD-Chief of our. Army and Navy, has been taxing every 
energy to destroy the rebellion, and effect a restoration of our imperiled 
Union. Not the heroic and untiring Grant, and the gallant officers and men 
of the grand old Army of the Potomac. Not Sheridan, who has 
signaled our successes from the valley of the Shenandoah. Not Sherman who 
with hi.5 heroic self-sacrificing officers and men, have kept untarnished the re- 
putation, and shed additional lustre upon the glorious A>my of the West. Not 
Farragut, nor any of the intrepid officers and men, who have upheld the honor 
of our flag in many a hard fought battle upon the sea. I ask the men who 
survive the terrible battles of this glorious war ; you who fought a at AYilson's 



Creek, at Belmont, at Donaldson, at Shilob, at Corinth, at Stone River, at Ar 




at Wiliiam-burg, and in the seven days battles of the Peniusu'a ; you who 
fought at CtnfcreviHe, at Somh Mountain, at Antietam, and the. battles before 
Fredericksburg ; you who with Grant, have struggled in all the. battles from 
the Rapidan to Petersburg; you, w,ho with Butler wrested the Ore -cent City 
from the hands of trail cots ; do you want the armistice ? From all these brave 
men. concermted to the service of their country by so many battles and so 
much devotion, there comes the same answer. " Let there be no armistice until 
the last t'aitor to liberty and good government shall have perished or submit- 
ted himself to the wholesome authority of the Constitution and the laws." 

Who wants the armistice ? Jeff. Davis and all rebeld m want it. The 
Chicago Convention, and the party supporting the election of George B. Mc- 
Cleilan want it. The Peudh'tons, the Wood?, the Va'dighams, the Seymours, 
and the Longs, want it. Every man who has vilified and traduced our brave 
soldiers, and denounced the war in which th,«y have been engaged want it. The 
men, who in Congress, have voted against supplies for the army, and tax bills 
for raising money with which to pay the soldiers want it. Finally, the men 
who love slavery and hate freedom want it. 

Men of the free North ! Soldiers of the armies of the Republic ! Will 
you trust such men with power? You desire peace, but is it such a peace you 
waiit? a peace that is disunion ; a peace which means separation of the States 
and endle-s r-nin to our God gwn Republic! No, from millions of loyal hearts 
thrills back the answer NO — and ou the 8th day of November next, you will 
thunder it aloud from every hill, from every valley — and the rolling prairies send- 
ing back the indignant protest of a loyal people, will consign to eternal infamy 
and oblivion these men, s. eking by an armistice and treason, our national 
humiliation and ruin. * 



PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN OF 1884. 




Hon. E B. WASHBURNE, of Illinois. 
" R. B. VAN VALKENBURG, N.Y. 
" J A. GARFIELD, of Ohio. 
" J. G BLAINE, of Maine. 
( House of Representatives ) 
E. D. MORGAN, Chairman. JAS. HARLAN, Treasurer. D. N. COOLEY, Secy. 



Hon. E. D. MORGAN, of New York. 
«« JAS. HARLAN, of Iowa. 
" L. M. MORRILL, of Maine. 
{Senate.) 



Committee Rooms, Washington, D. C., Sept. 2, 1864. 
Dear Sir : The Union Congressional Committee, in addition to 
the documents already published, propose to issue immediately 
the following documents for distribution among the people : 

1. McClellan's Military Career Reviewed and Exposed. 

2. George II'. Pendleton, his Disloyal Record and Antecedents. 

3. The Chicago Copperhead Convention, the Men who Com- 

posed and Controlled it. 

4. Base Surrender of the Copperheads to the Rebels in Arms. 

5. The Military and NavalSituation and the Glorious Achieve- 

ments of our Soldiers and Sailors. 

6. A Few Plain Words with the Private Soldier. 

7. What Lincoln's Administration has done. 

8. The History of McClellan's "Arbitrary Arrest" of the Mary- 

land Legislature. 

9. Can the Country Pay the Expenses of the War? 

10. Doctrines of the Copperheads North identical with those of 
the Rebels South. 

11. The Constitution Ilpheld and Maintained. 

12. Rebel Terms of Peace. 

13. Peace to be Enduring, must be Conquered. 

14. A History of Cruelties and Atrocities of the Rebellion. 

15. Evidences of a Copperhead Conspiracy in the Northwest. 

16. Seward's Auburn Speech. 

17. Schurz's Speech. 

18. Copperhead votes in Congress. 

19. " Leave Pope to get out of his Scrape." 

20. Shall we have an Armistice? 

The above documents will be printed in English and German, 
in eight or sixteen page pamphlets, and sent postage free, accord- 
ing to directions, at the rate of one or two dollars per hundred 
copies. The plans and purposes of the Copperheads having been 
disclosed by the action of the Chicago Convention, they should 
at once be laid before the loyal people of the country. There is 
but two months between this and the election, and leagues, clubs, 
and individuals should lose iiu time in sending in their orders. 

Remittances should be made in Greenbacks or drafts on New 
York City, payable to the order of James Harlan. 
Address — Free. 

Hon. JAMES HARLAN, 

Washington , D. C. 
Very respectfully, yours, &c, 

D. N. COOLEY, Secretary 






SHALL WE HAVE AN ARMISTICE? 



SHALL WE HAVE AN ARMISTICE? 

The Democratic party, in Convention at Chicago assembled, have demanded 
this. It becomes, therefore, one of the distinct issues of the pi esent political 
campaign. The question has been forced upon us ; we cannot escape it if we 
would ; it behooves us, therefore, to give it earnest, dispassionate consideration, 
that in acting upon it we may do so intelligently, with an eye single to our 
country's glory and well being. 

I^t us look at the resolution which presents this issue. Among other things 
it declares that : 

" Justice, humanity, liberty, and the public welfare, demand that im- 
" mediate efforts be made for the cessation of hostilities, with a view 
" to an ultimate convention of all the states, or other peaceablb 
" means, to the end that, at the earliest practicable moment, peace mat 
" be restored." 

This is something definite, something tangible, — not like McClellan's letter 
ot acceptance, a jargon of "glittering geneialities." Here we have a frank, 
outspoken expression of the sentiments, which animated and control Jed tuat 
Convent. on. We are told "justice, humanity, liberty, and the public weitare 
demand an armistice." For God's sake, look at the absurdity of this th.ng ; and 
in doiug so I charge you, do not fail to remember all the history of this bloody 
war, — how it came upon us, — how there was no alternative left to us, but war, or 
national ruin and dishonor. 

Look back again, upon the starving garrison at Fort Sumter, besieged, cut 
off from supplies, and finally bombarded by those who were seeking to wrest 
from us all we held dear as a nation. It was not until our glorious flag had 
been insulted, fired upon, and trampled in the dust ; not until our forts and 
and arsenals, our navy yards and mints had been captured or robbed by the 
rebellious foe, that the slumberiug manhood of the free North, was aroused, 
and she put forth her heroic energies to save the little remnant of liberty, and 
government Buchanan, and the rebels had left us. 

It was little more than the empty name, of government they left us. They 
had seat our navy to distaut shoies, that the traitors might the better be en- 
abidd to seize upon the forts, navy yards, and harbors stretching from the 
Potomac to the Rio Grande. They had robbed our arsenals of their arms (the 
accumulations of many years of peace) in order to enable the traitorous hosts 



fc. TO 6 

more eff (lively to resist the efforts o f our heroic men, when at last (his hide- 
ous wi. kedmss and unparalelled infmy should become known. You will 
remember too that ever memorai'le 19th of April, 1861, when the gallant, sons 
©f Massachusetts, rushing to the defence of our imperiled capital, were shot down 
in the sieets of Baltimore, by the minions of treasou and slavery. 

You will remember the history of all these years, and before you vote to " stop 
the war," lo cad back our heroic in u from the work so nobly commenced, so 
successfully and bravely prosecuted, you will insist upon some good reason, for 
Yielding to ibis demand for your national humiliation. 

The.-e men at Chicago, plotting your dishonor, gave you no warning of the 
results coming from this "cessation of hostilities." They did not tell you that 
the rebels vvoul I be strengthened and you weakened thereby. They did not 
tell you what they surely know, that the exhausted and failing resources of the 
rebellon needed this '" suspension i if hostilities." 

No, they cunningly and deliberately falsified this thing to you, saying" Jus- 
tice, humanity, liberty, and the public welfare demand it." Had their resolu- 
tion run thus : " Whereas, under ihe powerful and well dealt blows of Grant 
"ami Sherman, ofFarragut, and the othei brave men of our army and navy, the 
" Rebellion, is nearly brought to a close, and whereas, it is expedient that the 
"Rebeis be allowed time to rectuit their shattered forces and replenish their 
"wasted stores, therefore, Resolved, that immediate effoits be made for the 
cessation of hostilities," you would much better have understood its true 
meaning. 

Let us consider this question of an armistice. What is it ? What is meant 
by it? 

la Wheatou's "International Law," by Lawrence, page 585, he says: 

•* An armistice is the suspension of hostilities. This may be either special or general. 
If it be general in its application to all hostilities and in every place, and enduie for an 
indefinite period, it amounts in effect to a temporary peace, except that it leaves undecided 
the controversies in which the war originated." 

Afirain the same author, page 680, sp< aking of the consequences of an armis- 
tice, and the rules by which the pa4ies arc bound duiing its continuance, .-ays : 

"The fir^t of these peculiar rules, as laid down by Vattel, is that each party may do 
within his own territory, what he could do in time of peace. Thus either of the bellig- 
erent parties may levy and march troops, collect provisions and other munitions of war, 
receive reinforcements from his allies, or repair the fortifications of a place not actually 
jed." 



41 It amounts to a temporary peace," says Wheaton, " but it leaves the contro- 
versies in which the war originated undecided." Let the people determine 
whether they desire to leave undecided the controversies in which for the past 
four years we have been engaged. Let them decide whether we shall fight 
over ; gam the battles on land and sea, which have added so much of glory and 
renown to our brave army and ga lant navy. You have considered well the 
meaning of that word armistice — let us analyze it; let us put it in tangible 
shape so that you may see and know what you give up to the rebellion if yoa 
concede to the traitors this boon of an armistice. 

1st. It amounts to a temporary peace. 

2d. It leaves undetermined the controversies in which the war originated. 
3d. The rebels may do in their own territory what they might do in time 
of peace. 



4th. They may levy and march troops, collect provisions and other munitions 
©f wa'\ 

5th. They may receive reinforcements from tbeir allies, and repair their shat 
tered fortifications. 

6th. It follows, therefore, as a necessary consequence, that the blockade, which 
has shut out the traitors from the commercial world, since the war began, would 
bebioken up, and they again re<p the advantages to be derived from an un- 
restricted trade with those nations which have evinced such a tive a: d tamest 
sympathy with them in their efforts to accomplish our national dissolution. 

Why do Copperheads, the friends and advocates of McClellan, demand this f 
It cannot be because the armies of the Umon, have been conquered ; not be- 
eause our resources in men and money ate exhausted; not berau.se we have not 
made wonderful progress in the suppression of the rebellion, and won imperish- 
able glory for the Union arms both on land and sea. They demand it because 
they desire the rtbelbon to succeed and see slavery restored ; because the rebel. 
armies have been beaten in the field ; because their resources are exhausted, 
their arm'es diminished and demoral ze I, th-ir commerce destroyed, their 
finances min^d, th- if stronge-t forts recaptured, their harbors and p> ts block- 
aded by our navy and commanded by our guns, their foreign friends di cou aged, 
their people disheartened, their country laid waste, and thei pr dhots rend- 
ered wor bless. They therefore need time to recuperate, to replenish their 
deplete I treasury, to recruit and drill fresh armies, to build other sups of war, 
to convey their cotton to market and secure arms and other munitions of war; 
to strengthen t e fortifications now in their p ssession, and . r ct o h rs need- 
fal for their safety and defence, to ftira alliances and make negotiations with 
foreign nations for a recognition of their nationality. 

Tin y need time. Without time to recuperate their cause is lost, and they 
know it. Hence comes this demand from theii northern allies for an a mistice. 

Men of the Nor h 1 Soldiers of the Republic ! do you want such a p ace? 
Are you willing that all your heroic devo ion to liberty, and the Union, should 
result only in this temporary peace? If you want a peace worth haviug, one 
that will be permanent, a peace that comes to you unstain d with national 
dish-nor, then you will trample und r yi-ur feet this proposition for a " temporary 
peace" which comes to you with the nominal ion of McClellan. 

D<> vou wish to have the causes and controversies in which this war origi- 
nated undet ermine I '. 

Some of you, at least, believed that s'avery was either the immediate or remote 
•ause of the troubles which these years of self-sacrifice and war have b ought 
to us. You have cheiished the hope, that with the end of ihe war the end of 
slavery should also come. You ivm ember how, for'many yea s, this curse has 
troubled the peace of the nation ; how it has male freedom of'sp-ech and free- 
dom of i he press impossible; how it has debased and demoralized the na- 
tional politics; bow it has caused the churches and ministers <>f i\ lig'on to 
be faithless to the teachings of " Him who went about doing good, a id who 
spoke as never man spake ;" how at last it broke out in open and viol -nt re- 
belli.'M, against the Constitution and laws, in order that its i isatiate thirst, for 
power might be satisfied; and slavery become ''alike lawiul in all the S ates, 
North t aswell as South, old as well as new." Y^u, remember all the-e things, 
and yet you are a?.kcd to blot them from your memory, and restore, and ie-estab- 



Jish the institution which has been the fruitful source of aH your woes. These 
men at Chicago do not say this directly, but they hope to obtain some share of 
your sympathy and support, by pleading with you iu the name of ''justice, 
humanity, liberty, and public welfare." They have not the manly courage, to 
say to you that an armistice would result in the accomplishment of all the 
rebels have ever desired. They know, that with the cessation of hostilities, 
would come negotiations for a permeuent peace, upon the basis of southern in- 
dependence, or if nut that, at least additional guarantees to slavery. 

Let us not give up the advantages, which we have secured, after so many bloody 
battles, aud so much heroic devotion. Let us not smother the old flattie, leav- 
ing beueath the ashes which cover it the same t'u d that kindled the conflagration 
which has threatened our national destruction for so many weary yeais. 

No, the war and the heroic moral courage of our President, have placed 
the. institution of slavery "where the public mind will rest in the belief that it 
Is in the couise of ultimate extinction." There let it remain. Let no appeals 
for an armistice, or a tempoiary peace divert your attention from the labor of 
completing the work so gloriously begun. You have this wily serpent of 
slavery and treason under your feet, and do not, as you value your country's 
life and honor, allow traitorous appeals for a " cessation of hostilities" to divert 
you from your purpose to destroy him. 

Thitk of it ! The traitors, at the commencement of the rebellion, held un- 
disputed sway in Louisiana, Virginia, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, 
Arkansas, and Florida; and also had control of portions of Kentucky, Mary- 
land, and Missouri. Do you wish to yield up those States, won back to the 
Government, by so many well contested battles, both by land and sea! Do 
you wish to throw open those States, to the undisputed away of those from 
whom they have been conquered ? Do ycu wish to give the enemy an absolute 
right to raise and equip, and march armies in those States? Do you wish him 
to ei ter, unharmed, into the vast grain fields of Maryland, Kentucky, Tennes- 
see, and Missouri and replenish his exhausted stores, and gain fresh stiength 
for the contest, which must surely come when the armistice shall end ? Do 
you wish the rebels to again enter and possess the teiritory, over which Sher- 
man has won his way, after so much labor, and the shedding of so much pa- 
triotic b'ood ? 

Soldiers of the Army of the West, you who struggled with Grant 
at Fori Donalson, at Shiloh, at Vicksburgh ; you who won undying renown 
at St< i e River, under the courageous and indomitable Rosecraus; you who 
have shared the gloiies of Lookout Mountain with the fighting '"Joe Hooker;" 
you wno have labored so patiently and h-u-oicly from Chattanooga to Atlanta, 
do you wish to give back to the lebellioa all that you have gained after such 
laborious and heroic service? If you do not, then spurn from your very pres- 
ence these men who come to you with proposals For an armistice or a "cessation 
#i hostilities." During an armistice, says Vattel in his Law of Nations, page 
408, "each party may do in his own territory what he may have a light to do 
in time of profound peace." And on page 410, he says : " During the armis- 
" tice it is allowable for enemies to pass and repass, to and from each others 
" country, in the same manner as it is allowed in time of peace." 

Do you desire the return to the national capitol, of Jeff. Davis, and his asso- 
ciates unrestrained, unharmed ? Do you desire to impart in every way 
new hope and strength to the waning life of the rebellion ? Thfcn you have 
but to vote for McClellan, and with hitu this armistice. Rnmember you can- 
aot have one without, sooner or later having the other, for however much Mc- 



5 

Glellan may now seemingly ignore the platform upon which he was nominated 
should he be elected this delusion would end. lie would, and must necessarily 
represeut, the desires and wishes of the party that nominated and elected 
him. 

We have learned something of the hope that comes to the enemy by this 
armistice — let us now consider wh*t advantage comes to us thereby. In the 
first place comes national humiliation, fur by granting an arm stice we confess 
our inability to compel them by force of arms, to yieldsubiiiission to the Con- 
stitution, and the laws. You, who have been defending the Union, against the 
assaults ot its deadly enemies, believe that you have been doing battle in a holy 
cause, if you ask an armistice noiv, you give up the right for the wiong. You 
reward disunion ; you punish loyalty ; you admit your inferiority ; y>'U cry 
enough! and submit. Pause and consider, I pray you, the depth of our na- 
tional degradation, after such a submission ! 

But this is not all we lose, though God, knows if it were, it were sufficient to 
arouse the, withering ind'gnation of any loyal man at the thought. For what 
is this ce-SHiion of hostilities proposed ? " With a view," say they, "to a con- 
vention of all the Siates, for ihe purpose of miking peace." Such a conven- 
tion mu*t be first called by a two-thirds vote of Congress, and the c-dl after- 
wards raided by three-fourths of the Sates. Now, tlrs is an ut ! er impossi- 
bility. Dj you suppose, as has be^p eloquently asked by the venerable Dr. 
Breckemidtie, that " after three or four years of war ; after spending two or 
"three thousand millions of dollars; after spilling the b'ood of a million of our 
"•brothers, and consigning five hundred thousand to their gaves'; after conquor- 
" ing an extent of territory fifteen hundred miles in length by six hundred in 
" breadth ; having an army in every State in the Confederacy, and the majority 
" of them under our control ; having taken every stronghold from them except- 
"ing Charleston and li,:chmond; that, notwithstanding all this, we wi : l disgrace 
"ouiselves, like a set of poltroons, to the latest generation of mankind, and 
"sacrifice everything we have fought for, and all that makes a free government 
"worth living for? No! a thousand times no." Every patriot heait will 
spurn the thought. 

But supp >se such a thing possible. Have you thought of the long months 
that must elapse before such a convention can assemble? Have you thought 
of the t me you would iose, and how your stronghold upon the rebel in would 
be relaxed } How y ur armies would become demoralized and impatient, by 
the inaction and d> lay, which such a step involves ? Those who ask this of 
you, are heart and soul, in the interest of the traitors. They hope thereby to 
save them from utter defeat and absolute annihilation, to bring them back 
into the Union, with the old curse of slavery hanging like a mid-stone about 
their necks. That you may see that we indulge in po unwarrantable assertions, 
we ask you to consider who wants this armistice? Not " Honest Old Abe," 
who, as Commander-in-Chief of our Army and Navy, has been taxing every 
energy, to destroy the rebellion, and effect a restoration of our imperiled 
Union. Not the heroic and untiring Grant, and the gallant officers and men 
f of the grand oil Army of the Potomac. Not Sheridan, who has 
signaled our successes from the valley of the Shenandoah. Not Sherman, who 
with hi* heioic self-sacrificing officers and men, have kept untarnished the re- 
putation and shed additional lustre upon the glorious Anny of the, West. Not 
Farragut, nor any of the intrepid officers and men, who have upheld the honor 
of our flag in many a hard fought battle upon the s-a. I ask the m^-n who 
survive the teriible battles of this glorious war ; you who fought a at Wilson's 



Greet, at B.-lmont, at Donals-ovi, at Shiloh, at Corinth, at Stoue River, at Ar- 
kansas P-'S', nt Pert Hudson, *t Champion Hills, and Vicksburg ; do y u want 
the aimst'cn ? You, who at. the outset of this wicked. ■• bed on. e*tti a' your 
countr\'s call, an.d struggled so heroicly and biavJy at Bui' Hun, at Y rktown, 
at Wil iam burg, and in the seven days battles of the Peninsu a ; y u who 
fought at Cent i eville, at S >uth Mountain, at Autiettm, an. I the i a t »s before 
Fredeii ksburg; j on who with Grant, have stmggled in ail the ba ties from 
the Rapi'ian 10 Petersburg ; you, who with Butlei wrested the Ge c nt City 
from the hands < f trti ors ; <lo you want the armistice ? From a 1 ! these brave 
men, Cun see rated to the service of their country i>y s> many ha t es and bo 
muct) d -vot'on, there comes the same answer. " Lei tl Hv be do armis ice, until 
the last t aitor to lib-itv and good government, shall have perish' d o submit- 
ted himself to the wholesome authority of the Constitution, and ih - 1 .ws." 

Who wants the aunisiice? Jeff. Davis and all r^befd m want p. The 
Chicago Convention, and the party supporting the election of G org- B. Mc- 
Glellan want it. The Peiidletons, the Wood9, the VaMandighams. the S.ymours, 
and the Longs, vant it. Ev^iy man who has vi'ifi-d and traduced our brave 
soldieis, and denounced the war in which they have been engaged wad it. The 
men, who in Congress, have voted against supplies for the army, and >ax bills 
for ra'sii g money wih which to pay the soldiers want it. Fiaal y, the men 
who love slavery and hate freedom want it. 

Men of the fr e-; North! Soldiers of the armies of the Republic 1 Will 
you t< list such men with power? You desire peace, but is it such a peoce you 
wart < a peace that Is disunion; a peace which means sep ration oft ie States, 
and end e s i.u.n to om G»l g vtn Republic! No, from million- o! hnal hearts 
thrills hack the answer, NO — and on the 8th day of November next, you will 
thunde 1 it .loud iVoni ^veiy hill, from every valley — nd i he tolling praiii s send- 
ing back the indignant protest of a loyal people, will con-ign to biema 1 infamy 
aud obliv on thet>e men, seeking by an armistice and treasoD, our national 
humiliation and ruin. 



PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN OF 1884. 

UNION CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEE. 



Hon. E. D. MORGAN, of New York 
" JAS. HaR^AN, of Iowa. 
" L. M. MORRILL, uf Maine. 
(Senate.) 



Hon. E. B. WASHBdRKK, of Illinois. 
" R. B. VAN VALKENBURG, N.Y. 
" J A. GARFIELD, of Ohio. 
" J. G BLAINE, of Mnine. 
(House of Representatives ) 
E. D. MORGAN. Chairman. JAS. HARLAN, Treasurer. D. N. COOLEY. Sec'y. 



Committee Rooms, Washington, D. 0., Sept. 2, 1864. 
Dkar Sir : The Union Congressional Committee, in addition to 
the documents already published, propose to issue immediately 
the following documents for distribution among the people : 

1. McClellan's Military Career Reviewed and Exposed. 

2. George Ii. Pendleton, his Disloyal Record and Antecedents. 

3. The Chicago Copperhead Convention, the Men who Com- 

posed and Controlled it. 

4. Base Surrender of the Copperheads to the Rebels in Arms. 

5. The Military and Naval Situation and tlfe* Glorious Achieve- 

ments of our Soldiers and Sailors. 

6. A Few Plain Words with the Private Soldier. 

7. What Lincoln's Administration has done. 

8. The History of McClellan's "Arbitrary Arrest" of the Mary- 

land Legislature. 

9. Can the Country Pay the Expenses of the War? 

10. Doctrines of the Copperheads North identical with those of 

the Rebels South. 

11. Tli£ Constitution Upheld and Maintained. 

12. Rebel Terms of Peace. 

13. Peace to be Enduring, must be Conquered. 

14. A History of Cruelties and Atrocities of the Rebellion. 

15. Evidences of a Copperhead Conspiracy in the Northwest. 

16. Seward's Auburn Speech. 

17. Schurz's Speech. 

18. Copperhead votes in Congress. 

19. " Leave Pope to get out of his Scrape." 

20. Shall we have an Armistice? 

The above documents will be printed in English and German, 
in eight or sixteen page pamphlets, and sent postage free, accord- 
ing to directions, at the rate of one or two dollars per hundred 
copies. The plans and purposes of the Copperheads having been 
disclosed by the action of the Chicago Convention, they .should 
at once be laid before the loyal people of the country. There is 
but two mouths between this and the election, and leagues, clubs, 
and individuals should lose no time in sending in their orders. 

Remittances should be made in Greenbacks or drafts on New 
York City, payable to the order of James Harlan. 
Address — Free. 

Hon. JAMES HARLAN, 

Washington, D. C. 
Yery respectfully, yours, &c, 

D. N. COOLEY, Secretary 



A HISTORICAL PARALLEL 



Like feelings and sentiments produce like expressions at all times and places. 

ample see the following : 



For ex- 



HORA.TIO SEYMOUR 

againsit 
LINCOLN in 1864. - 

[From Horatio Seymour's speeches at Mil- 

waukie and Chicago.] 

Three years have rolled away. The 
young men that responded to that call — 
where are they 'f More than five hundred 
thousand of, our brave soldiers now sleep 
in their untimely graves. Look at the 
debtl An immense debt! Over two mil- 
lion of men have been called for since that 
time to bear arms in the^truggle. Five 
hundred thousand more are to-day being 
called lor. The nation is crushed down 
with taxation, and the war not ended. 

Our rights have been infringed upon. 
The freedom of speech and of the press has 
been denied us. The sacreduess of our 
homes lias been impaired. ■ * * * * 
The guarantied right of the people to bear 
arms has been suspended up to the very 
borders ct Canada. * -** * 

Four 3 tars ago a convention met in this 
city wheu our country was peaceful, pros 
perous, and happy. * ***** 

Had wise statesmanship secured the fruits 
of the victories, to-day there would have 
been peace in our laud. 



I will fight to the death to preserve to 
you these rights that have been denied; 'to 

The Democratic party will put down d?s 
potiatn, beeuus^ it hates the ignoble tyran- 
ny whicu now degrades the American peo- 

The results of the coming election involve 
the liberties ot the country. * * * 

Creater questions, graver questions — 
questions wuicii come more directly h<>me 
to Ihe. hearts and interests of men — have 
never be .-u submitted to the people for their 
arbitration. 

Mothers and sisters are in trouble by the 
family hearth, and when there is trouble 
there there is no happiness in life. * * * 

Now is mere no mode By which the peo- 
ple cau be protected fro. a these frightful 
sacrifices and ihe Uuiou saved? 

I implore jou, therefore, to turn again to 
the wisdom of your forefathers. Turn again 
toward tue Ugnts of experience. * * * 

American servitude is put in bold con- 
trast with British libeity. * * * * 

We propose to elect to the Presidency a 
patriot, a soldier and a christian — G-. B. 
MeOlellaa. 



BENEDICT ARNOLD 

against 

WASHINGTON in 1780. 

[From Benedict Arnold's proclamation to 

the citizens and Soldiers of the United 

States, issued October 2, 1780.] 

You are promised liberty by the leaders 

of your affairs, but is there an individual in 

the enjoyment of it save your oppressors? 

vVho among you dare to speak or write 

what he thinks against the tyranny which 

has robbed you of your property, imprisons 

your sons, drags you to the field of battle, 

and is daily deluging your country with 

blood ? 



Our country once was happy, and had 
the proffered peace been embraced, the last 
two years of misery would have been spent 
in peace and plenty and in repairing the 
desolation of the quarrel, that would have 
set the interests of great Britain and Amer- 
ica in a true light and cemented their friend- 
ship. 

I wish to lead a chosen band of Ameri- 
cans to the attainment of peace, liberty and 
safety — the first objects in taking the field. 



What is America but a land of widows, 
orphans and beggars 1 

But what need of argument to such as 
feel infinitely more misery than tongue can 
express ! 

1 give my promise of most affectionate 
welcome to all who are disposed to join me 
in measures necessary to dose the scene of 
our affliction, which must be increased un- 
til we are content with the liberality of the 
parent country, which still offer* us protec- 
tion and perpetual exemott on from all taxes 
but such as we shall thiuk fit to impose 
upon ourselves. Benedict Arnold. 



THE 



PENINSULAR CAMPAIGN 



ITS ANTECEDENTS, 



A8 riETELOPED BY VEit 



REPORT OF MAJ. GEN. GEO. B. McCLELLAN, 



AKB QTHKR 



PUBLISHED DOCUMENTS. 



BY 



vr. 



J. Q. BAbNARD, 

jbMsna cr engineers and brigadier general or volunteers, and chief bnoineer nr *hx tsxx 0? thi 

POTOMAC SKQU ITS ORUAMZaTIQN 10 ES£ CLOSE Of TKX FJUM2U1 CLAil CVHPAJUa, 



WASHINGTON, D. C. : 

PUBLISHED BY THE UNION CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEE. 

1864. 



D .4 



,..>-Y 



PREFATORY REMARKS. 



The year of our Lord, 1863, opened upon the 
darkest period in the history of ihe momentous 
struggle in which we are yet engaged. The 
Army of the Potomac, which had gone forth 
in April of the previous year, at a period when 
victory had recently everywhere favored our 
banners, and it seemed left only to give one 
vigorous blow, to quell forever the rebellion, 
had been disastrously driven from Richmond, 
and called back to Washington, to arrive barely 
in time to save that city from the grasp of an 
enemy resuscitated in strength, and with a re- 
newed audacity, assuming everywhere a vigor- 
ous offensive action. In the West the course 
of things had but too faithfully followed the re- 
verses of the East. The renewed hope which 
followed the repulse of the rebel armies from 
Maryland had been darkened by the long delays 
which ensued, and the subsequent disastrous 
failure at Fredericksburg. 

Military calamities, disheai'tening as they 
might be, would have been of comparatively 
little moment, however, had military calamities 
been all that darkened the aspects of the time 
The country was rich in men and means, and 
its resources had as yet been lightly drawn 
upon. It had put forth its strength, indeed, 
but not its whole strength. Men did not feel 
dismayed because they doubted the ability of 
the nation to carry on the struggle to a suc- 
cessful issue, but because, for the time, the 
power of the nation was partially paralyzed. 
Yet there never was a moment when the public 
safety, and the safety of the common cause 
more urgently, demanded the exertion of all the 
nation's strength. Why, then, did men doubt? 
Where was the origin of this paralysis? It was 
.in the charge, audaciously made, impudently 
persisted in, that to the blunders and incapacity 
of the Administration, all our disasters were 
due ; that, with such incapacity at the head of 
affairs, our re-iources, though they were poured 
forth like water, would, like water, too, be spilt 
on the ground. Men will sacrifice much in 
great emergencies, but they never will give 
their lives or their money merely that such 
treasures may be ignorantly or wantonly wasted. 

" Had McClellan but had his way, had he not 
beeu interfered with, had not his army been re- 
duced and taken away from him, and his move- 
ments in a thousand ways hampered and 
baulked, had he, in short, had the sole control 
of military affairs, all would have been 
.different. Richmond would have been ours, 
iho rebellion would have been subdued, and, 
instead of disaster and prolonged war, a tri- 
umphant peace might have been our happier 
lo.t." To such charges against the Administra- 



tion which had raised him to his position, and 
which, through the President, had ever showed 
him unwearied kindness, and given him all the 
confidence it could give, Gen. McClellan lent 
the full weight of his name and reputation. 
Throwing himself into the arms of a party bit- 
tesly hostile to that Administration, associated 
with men \yho loaded the agents of the Govern- 
ment with reproach, and among whom were 
some so insensible to the honor of the country 
and the sacredness of the cause as to court for- 
eign mediation and«to meditate a disgraceful 
and humi'iating peace, to him, and to the erro- 
neous ideas disseminated concerning his capa- 
city, merits, and agency, the paralysis of doubt 
was duo, as it was to him were justly ascribable 
the di asters which brought our military affairs 
to so low an ebb. ***** 

It was under such circumstances that, in writ- 
ing an official report, at the request of General 
McClellan himself, of the engineering operations 
of the Army of the Potomac, I deemed it my 
duty to state what I believed to be the sources 
of failure of the campaign of the Peninsula. 
The opinions therein written down were no af- 
terthoughts. Six months before I had formed 
them, and when I spoke at all, (which I did not 
do openly,) expressed them. I had formed tbem 
painfully, reluctantly, at a period when politi- 
cal questions had not become involved with thla 
subject, and no such causes existed to influence 
in any manner my judgment. It was at a pe- 
riod when for Gen. McClellan I entertained the 
warmest personal regard — a feeling which I dis- 
tinctly and sincerely expressed in writing on 
leaving him in August, 18G2. With no man 
have I ever, with a more absolute freedom from 
any other feeling than one of personal kindness, 
been so long closely associated, and if, at any 
moment, there seemed to me to exist some slight 
grounds' for complaint, they were never such as 
to be remembered, or to haveaDy abiding place 
in my breast. 

But there are cases in which personal feelings 
must be allowed little weight. The destinies 
of nations cannot be trifled with, and in all that 
affects them, convictions of truth must be 
uttered. The Report of the Engineering Opera- 
tions of the Army of the Potomac, and the 
statements of these pages, arc the utterances I 
am constrained to make. 

The review which follows was first prepared 
as a magazine article. It has not been thought 
necessary to alter the phraseology, though 
another form of publication is adopted. 



J. G. B. 



Washington, May 10, 18G4, 



PENINSULAR CAMPAIGN. 



(Jen. McClellan had been called to the com- 
inand of the Army of the Potomac with an 
unanimity of feeling and lavish bestowal of 
confidence, which stand almost alone in our 
iistory. the army lookiirj upon Gen. Scott as 
past the age of further active service, and upon 
most of the officers of rank as superannuated 
or otherwise incapable of meeting such an 
emergency, hailed the advent of a new chief, 
whose juvenile promise, whose thorough mili- 
tary education, and whoso already extended 
reputation, seemed to give assurance of pre- 
cisely the one thing needed — a capable leader. 

tJndersucb circumstances, neither the nation, 
nor the Administration, nor the army, were 
uTspo.'.ed to exercise — nor did they exercise — 
undue pressure. Every indulgence was ex- 
tended to one upon whom so heavy a respon- 
6i b lay had been laid, for the acknowledged 
difficulties of the situation, and for his own 
Inexperience and want of preparation. 

Now, hud Gen. McClellan been a Napoleon, 
with l lie prestige of a hundred victories — or 
even a Scott — old in the regard of the people ; 
old in experience of war, even upon a compar- 
atively limited scale, but rejuvenated in years 
— had he been cither of these, ho might, with 

Efop iet>, if he thought the case demanded it, 
are drawn heavily upon the indulgence s > 
fue'y extended, lieing neither, it was impor- 
tant that lie should make the lightest possible 
dnili; that, at the very earliest moment, he 
should do eometliing to confirm, continue, and 
Justify the nation's confidence. Of all Gen. 
McUeil.xn's faults and incapacities, nothing — 
not even his irresolution and mismanagement 
in face of the enemy, nor his inability ever, in 
any case, to act when the time came — furnishes 
a clearer proof of the lack of those qualities 
which make a great general or a great states- 
man, than his failure to do this. 

Let it be granted that it was not best to 
make any great movement till the winter of 
I.8G1— 'G2 had wholly passed away, (though there 
Were the strongest political reasons* against 
Such < e'ay,) yet Geri. McClellan should have 
teen aware that, unless his prestige, through 
these long months, should be supported by 



*AllwtiM» to the danger — grout vX tUot time — of Euro- 
peau interventioni 



tome deeds, he would find himself virtually 
destitute of the power to carry out his own 
plans when the moment proper for such a 
movement should arrive ; and so it happened. 
But, after six long manths of omissian, ho 
added to his imp udence the positive lolly of 
making an extravagant and senseless draft 
upon the confi lence of the Administration and 
the public, which in the beginning' had been 
so generously given him, but which he had so 
lightly permitted to be, in a measure, lost. 

Grant, again, that the lower Chesapeake was 
the true line of approach to Richmond, and tho 
sole route by which to attain results of such 
magnitude as Gen. McClellan predicted from 
its adoption, yet, it, was nevertheless true that 
this route was strongly disapproved by the 
President, and by many whoa : judgment car- 
ried great influence, and that it involved, in 
the minds of not a few, great danger to the 
capital. Yet, in the face of all this, Gen. Mc- 
l lellan, who had never furnished any adequate 
evidence of his ability to plan or execute a 
great campaign, persisted in carrying oft' his 
army, at enormous expense, to a di tant point, 
leaving that enemy, to whom he attributes a 
force of no less than one hundred and fifty 
thousand men, " well disciplined and under 
able leaders," confronting Washing on, with 
nothing but the garrison of the place, and its 
very imperfect system of fortifications, t > pro- 
tect it. The line of forts on the Virginia side 
of the Potomac had been hasti'y thrown up, 
and wiia really, at that time, considering its 
great exfrent, very incomplete and weak ; on 
the Maryland side it was bo imperfect as hardly 
to deserve the name of a fortified line. 

Gen. Barnaidp in his official report, says: 
"When the army was to go by Annapolis; I 
felt confident that one half would be no sooner 
embarked than the other would be ordered 
back to Washington " No one could, we think, 
have spent a week in Washington, at this 
period, without being convinced that, whether 
reasonably or not, such would have been tho 
result of a mere demonstration of the enemy 
against the city. 

[Gen. D u-nard goes on to say that, as early 
as the middle of October, 18G1. Gen. McClellan 
had. by his own statements, 7o\285 men dis- 
posable for an advance, (a number constantly 



and rapidly increasing); that for three months 
thereafter the weather and roads we/e iwi- 
usually favorable for field opera! ions ; ibat, too, 
it was at this very period that the blockade of 
the Potomac commenced, that the disr putable 
disaster of Ball's Bluff occurred, and that, for 
six weeks, a comparatively weak enemy had 
"flaunted his hateful banner in the very sight 
of the Capitol , ' an 1 continues: ] 

Iu his apology to the President and expo- 
sition of hi< pet scheme of " changing' his 
base" of opera! mis to the lower Chesapeake, 
Gen. McClcllan says : 

"When I was placed in command of the armies of the 
Unite.! 81 ttes, I n imediately turned my attention to tho 
whole field of operations, regMding the Anny of the Poto- 
mac as only one, while (ho moat important, of tho musses 
under my command. I 

I confess that I did not then appreciate fne total ab- 
sence of a general plan'which had before existed, nor did I 
know that utter disorganization and want of preparation 
pervaded the western armies. 

I took it for granted that they wore nearly, if not 
quite, in condition t > move towards the fulfillment of my 
plans. 1 acknowledge that 1 made a great mistake. 

Lsjiit at one -, \vi,.i llieap rov.J oftaoi :.ec iture, offlcors 
Pcunside'reJ a m.jelent, lo command in Kentucky and Mis- 
souri. Tin ir instructions look ;d to prompt movements. I 
s jon found that la- 1 ibor of ere ition and oi ga ization had 
to bo perf >rmed there ; trauspo talion, arms, clothing, p,r- 
tillery, discipline, all ware wanting. These things required 
lime to ] r leure tuem. 

The gen n s in command have done this work most 
ereditahiy, but we arc still delayed. I had boped that a 
general adyi ncocei Id bo made during tho good weather 
of Decenb r ; I was mistaken. 

•Take this in conned ion with the paragraph 
of page 412,* and we are bound to believe that 
no sooner did he reach the supreme command 
than he deliberately deferred all action of the 
Army of the Potomac, not because it was not 
ready to act, but until u a.gen ral advance cotrid 
be made during the good weather of December." 
Without commenting upon the censure cast 
upon his illustrious and venerable predecessor, 
Gen. Scott, for the " total absence of a general 
plan," kc, "the utter disorganization and want 
of preparation in the western armies," &c, 'we 
remark that if the western armies were unpre- 
pared, it was mainly because of his own insati- 
able demands for everything the nation could 
furnish, for all that he asked for was granted, 
as much as if ho had been al; endy commander- 
in-chief; moreover lhat, though he kept the 
Army of the Potomac spell-bound, waiting for 
,: disorganiz d " ami " unprepared " armies to 
move, those very armies actually did move, took 
Fort Henry, Fort Donelson, Columbus and Nash- 
ville, reached the very southern borders of 
Tennessee, and foughtthe bat.lcof Shiloh before 
the Army of the Potomac had fairly inaugura- 
ted its qamjnaign. Indeed, an admirer of Gen. 
•McCielian's strategy of that day entered into 
a long newspaper argument to show why this 
great msyement of the right wing must take 
place before the Army of the Potomac could be 
released from its compulsory inactivity, 

Gen. McClellan cannot assign the mud obsta- 
cle, (hitherto so much insisted upon,) as an 
apology for inaction in a region selected by 

• Congressional Edition of General M'Clellau'a Report. 



himself, and where, according to his own most 
form.' I statements, now published with his re- 
port, he believes that the roads are passable (A 
all seasons of the year. Let us therefore accept 
his apology — he was waiting for the "combined" 
movements of other armies which actually moved 
— effected great conquests and fought one desper- 
ate pitched battle, before the campaign of his 
own Army of the Potomac had commenced I 

[The author states that even if mud and 
weather were adequate causes against inaugu- 
rating a great campaign, it was no reason that 
nothing should be done. 

Norfolk might have been captured, and its 
acquisition was easy after Burnside's capturo 
of Roanoke Island — its possession of vast im- 
port nee in connection with Gen. McClellan'B 
meditated campaign. 

He also states that the fitting up of the 
Merrimac as an iron-clad ram, was well known 
to the Navy Department, which urgently de- 
sired the capture of the place, foreboding the 
disa tcr which actually befell us. 

lie thou discusses Gen. McClellan's estimates 
of the rebel frees "on the Potomac," and 
shows their discrepancy and •hcirimprobability. 

In an official s'atc.ient to the President, Gen. 
McClellan estimated tho c e forces in October, 
1861, at 150.000 men, well drilled and ably com- 
manded. H'6 states in his report, that "from 
the Report of the Chief of the Secret Service" 
there iree on the 8th March, 1862, 102,500 
men on the Potomac, and 13.500 in the Shen- 
andoah Valley, 115,500 in all. Gen. Barnard 
quo es the "Count of Paris," who was perfectly 
acquainted, and indeed connected, with the 
" Secret Service," to show that on the 10th of 
March the rebel force on the Po'omac was but 
70,000 men; and again, in a note, he proves 
that Gen. McClellan himself did not, on the 2d 
of March, believe that the rebel force on the 
Potomac, was over 60,000 or 70,000 men, and 
goes on to say:] 

It is next to certain that nothing like the 
numbers given, even by the lowest estimate 
were in front «f us, from Fredericksburg to 
Leesburg, at that time, and also that the eval- 
uation commenced several weeks hefore the 8th 
of March. Wm. Henry Hurlbcrt, who certainly 
had most exce.lent opportunities of judging, 
and whose admiration of Gen. McClellan would 
not cause him to err consciously on the unfav- 
orable side, says : — 

I have reason to believe that, when the history of th« 
present war shall come to be written fairly and in full, it 
will be found tfiat Gen. Johnson never intended to hold 
Manassas and Centreville against any serious attack; that 
his army at these points bad suffered greatly during the aa- 
tumn and winter of 1' 61- L;; that from October to March ha 
never had an effective force of more than 40,000 under his 
orders : that his preparations for an evacuation were begua 
as early as October, 1'Cl ; and that alter that time ha lay 
there simply iu observation. * * * 

Just as the movement to the lower Chesa- 
peake waS about to be executed, the appearance 
of the long-expected Merrimac threw the wholfi 
scheme again into uncertainty. Now, though 
the " power " of the Monitor may have been 



"satisfactorily demonstrated" by the combat 
which occurred, it never was " satisfactorily 
demonstrated" that she cjuM neutralize the 
39errimac. It was all conjecture. All l«hat the 
Secretary of the Navy, or Mr. Fox — all that 
Commodore Goldsborough — couid affirm, was 
that she should not escape from Hampton 
Roads. The filling of Hampton Roads with 
transports, under such circumstances, was at- 
tended with great risk. The Prince de Join- 
vtile says : 



i were the circumstances in winch I arrived at Fort- 
ress Monroe. Soon the Roads were filled with vessels 
coming from Alexandria or Annapolis, and filled, some 
with soldiers, some with horses, cannon, and munitions of 
«J1 kinds. Sometimes I counted several hundred vessels at 
tho anchorage, and among them twenty or twenty-five 
large steam transports waiting for their turn to coma no to 
the quay and land tho fifteen or twenty thousand men 
Whom they brought. Tho reader may judge how fearful 
wonld have been the catastrophe had' the Merrimac sud- 
denly appeared among this swarm of ships, striking them 
one after another, and sending to "the bottom theso human 
hives with all their inmates! The Federal authorities, both 
aav.il and military, here underwent several days of the 
keenest anxiety. Every time that a smoke was seen above 
the troe3 which concealed the Elizabeth River, men's hearts 
beat fast, But the Merrimac never came. She allowed the 
landing to take place without opposition. 

Why did she do this? 

She did not come because her position at Norfolk, as a 
constant menace, secured without any risk two results of 
CTeat importance. In the first place, she kept paralyzed in 
Hampton Roads the naval forces assembled to join tho 
fand army in tho attack upon Yorktown; in the second 
place— and this was the principal object — sho deprived the 
Federal army of all the advantages which the possession of 
the James.would have secured to it in a campaign of which 
Richmond was the base. 

[Gen. McClellan draws strongly upon the 
eredulity of his readers when he asserts that 
the enemy abandoned Manassas on learning 
that the movement to the Peninsula was in- 
tended. With the force he believes them to have 
had, (115,000 men) and "able leaders," "a 
serious menace upon Washington, to say 
nothing of a serious attack," would have frus- 
trated the movement to the Peninsula, by 
placing Washington itself in great danger. 
Oen. Barnard says : "The truth is, the enemy 
abandoned Manassas because his force was too 
weak to permit liim to remain longer where he 
was. He abandoned it after»the President's 
orders for an attack upon him where he was had 
been given ;" and proceeds ; ] 

Having with such affluence of argument de- 
monstrated to the President the superiority of 
his "plan" — having tenaciously cherished it 
for four long months — having persisted, even 
against risks of no ordinary magnitude, and 
against the settled convictions of the President, 
TO carrying it out, we cannot doubt that at 
least Gen. McClellan has perfect knowledge of 
the new theater of war upon which he is enter- 
ing — or, at least, such knowledge as would 
justify his assump'ions and approve his mili- 
tary judgment. What, then, is our astonish- 
ment, when we find that he carried his army 
/nto a region of which he was wholly ignorant 
— that the quasi information he had about it 
was all erroneous — that within twelve miles of 
the outposts of troops under his command a 
powerful defensive line had been thrown up 



during the winter and spring, of which he knew 
nothing whatever, though it lay across his 
meditated line of march, and altered the whole 
ehiua-'cer of the problem — that the roads, 
"passable at all seasons " were of the moat 
horrible character, and the country a wilder- 
ness. His own account of his information is 
given as follows, (p. 74) : 

As to tho force and position of the enemy, the informa- 
tion then in our possession was vague and untrustworthy. 
Much of it was obtained from the staff officers of Gen. 
Wool, ami was simply to the effect that Yorktown was sur- 
rounded by a continuous lino of earthworks, with strong 
water batteries on tho York River, and garrisoned by not 
less than 15,000 troops, under command of Gen. J. B. 51a- 
gruder. Maps, which had been prepared by the topograph! 
cal engineers under Gen. Wool's command, were furnished 
me, in which the Warwick River was represented as flowing 
parallel to, but not. crossing, the road from Newport News 
to Williamsburg, making tho so-called Mulberry bland a 
real island; and wo had no information as to the true course 
of tho Warwick across the Peninsula, nor of the formidable 
line of works which it covered. 

And again (p...75) : 

In tho commencement of the movement from Fort Mon- 
roe, serious diiliculties were encountered from the want of 
precise topographical information of the country in advance. 
Correct local maps were not to be fonn 1, and the country, 
though known in its general features, we (cAmd to be inac- 
curately described in essential particulars in tho only niap-j 
and geographical memoirs or papers to which access could 
be had. Erroneous courses to streams and roads were fre- 
quently given, and no dependence could bo placed on the 
information thus derived. This difficulty has been found to 
exist with respect to most portions of the State of Virginia, 
through which my military operations have extended. 

******** 

The withdrawal of the corps of Gen. McDow- 
ell from this expedition is the gr at incident 
upon which have been based the fi rcest invec- 
tives against the Administration for its "inter- 
ference," and the charges upon it of responsi- 
bility for the failure of the campaign. Wo 
shall go no further into the matter bet e t*han to 
say, first, that the decision of the corps com- 
manders (pp. 59 and GO) and the approval of 
the Secretary of War (p. 60) were the sole 
points of understanding between Gen. McClellan 
and the War Depariment. Notwithstanding that 
Gen. McClellan was in the vicinity of Washing- 
ton eighteen days after these conditions were 
established, he never had, or took pains to have 
an understanding as to how they were to be ex- 
ecuted. The very day he sailed (April 1) lie 
sent to the Adjutant General a statement of his 
dispositions, and this, submitted by the Secre- 
tary of War to military advisers and decided 
by them to be not a fulfillment of the conditions, 
prompted and justified the order withdrawing 
McDowell. With the Secretary of W:v and his 
advisers, it was simply a question whether tho 
conditions which the President imposed in ap- 
proving, or rather in permitting. Gen. McClel- 
lan's eccentric movement, had been fulfilled. 
They had not b^eu fulfilled, and the whole thing 
had been carried on from the beginning in dis- 
regard, not only of the President's wishes, but 
of his positive orders, and of the conditions 
which he (through a council of war) imposod 
upon the movement. 

Citing the order detaining McDowell, Gen. 
McClellan resorts to the unworthy subterfuge 



of representing it as a tcithdrawal of troops from 
his command by the President, in violation of 
his promise* " that nothing of the kind should 
be repeated," (he refers to a previous with- 
drawal of Blonker's division — a body of 
troops of which ho had more than once ex- 
pressed his determination to rid himself in some 
way,) " that I might rest assured that the cam 
paigu should proceed with no further deductions 
from tho force upon which its operations had 
been planned;" whereas it was simply an en- 
forcement of the conditions upon which the 
President reluctantly sanctioned the plan. He 
goes on to say: 

To me the blow was most discouraging. It frustrated all 
my plans lor impending operations. It fell when I was 
tso deeply committed to withdraw. It left mo incapable, of 
•ontinuing operations which had been begun. It compelled 
the adoption of another, a different, and less effective plan 
ef campaign. It made rapid and brilliant operations im- 
possible. It was a fatal error. 

The very circumstances he here details stul- 
tify his conclusions. "Rapid and brilliant 
operations" vjctc more than ever imposed upon 
him. When Napoleon, with a handful of men, 
drove the Austrians out of Italy, though twice 
and '.hricc placed, by the paucity of his num- 
bers, in almost desperate situations, it. was not 
by admitting that " rapid and brilliant opera- 
tions" were " impossible," (a word, by the by, 
which he ever repudiated,) but by recognizing 
that in them alone his hope lay. 

[Gen. Barnard goes on to state that, having 
found himself stopped by an obstacle, the ex- 
istence of which he ought to have known, but 
of which he was inexcusably ignorant — having 
the success of the campaign and his own rep- 
utation, and even the safety of his army, jeop- 
ardized by this unforeseen impediment — he 
should have overcome itatouce, at all hazards, 
and states his belief that a well conducted as- 
' gault would have succeeded. He states, too, 
-that Gen. McClellan, to justify his failure to 
assault, has quoted a description of the enemy's 
works, as they were at the end of the siege, a whole 
month after we encountered them ; Johnston's 
army being engaged all that time in strength- 
ening them. Those who have seen what our 
armies do in a week, or even in a day, in forti- 
fying themselves, can well comprehend the 
disingenousnesa of such a plea. The author 
proceeds:] 

We shall not pause here to dwell upon the 
battle of Williamsburg. That a fierce battle 
was fought at a point where there was a strong 
probability that such a rencontre would occur, 
(for it was reasonable to suppose that the 
en<»my would require further time to secure his 
retreat and save his trains, and here was a 
fortified position perfectly adapted to such a 
temporary stand,*) that it occurred without 
foresight, preparation, or orders, and that there 
was utter confusion with regard to the com- 
mand and direction of the troops, that the 
Commanding General himself, though only 

* It was also known that there were strong defensive 
works Bl or iw"»* ,Vi " ; """-' 'MeCUllaa's Report, p. 74.) 



twelve miles distant, was " completing the prep- 
aration for the departure of Gen. FrankKn's 
troops by water, and making the necessary ar- 
raBgement3 with the naval commander for his 
co-operatiou," that we lost 2.288 men in an 
affair in which we gained nothing and which 
need not have cost us a man, is all now well 
understood. 

Neither shall we dwell on the extraordinary 
sluggishness of the march from Williamsburg 
to the Chickahominy, following the Command- 
ing General's boastful declaration that he 
should "push the enemy to the wall." (A 
dispatch, by the by, which he has suppressed 
in this report.) We shall only stop to call at- 
tention to the dispatch of the Secretary of War 
of May 18th, (p. 96,) and to the following com- 
ment of Gen. McClellan : 

It will be observed that this order rendered it impossible 
for me to use the James River as a line of operations, and 
forced me to establish our depots on tho Pamunkey, and t\i 
approach Richmond from the north. 

I had advised and preferred that reinforcements should 
be sent by water, for the reason that their arrival would 
be more safe and certain, ami tint I would be left free to 
rest the army on the James River whenever the navigation 
of that stream should be opened. 

The land movement obliged me to expose my right in 
order to secure the junction, and as the order for Gen. 
McDowell's march was soon countermaifded, I incurred 
great rif.k, of which tho enemy finally took advantage, and 
frustrated tho plan of the campaign. 

We here remark that it was at Roper's Church, 
where the army was on the 11th of May, that 
it was necessary to decide whether we would 
cross the Chickahominy near that place and 
approach the James, (then open to us by the 
destruction of the Merrimac,) or continue on 
the Williamsburg road to Richmond. The 
great mistake of not taking the James River 
route was made eight days previous to the date 
of this order, and was due to Gen. McClellran's 
total ignorance of the topography of the coun- 
try he was operating in, to his want of due 
appreciation of the superior value of the James 
as a base, and not to an order received eight 
days later. 

In his eagerness to make this grave charge 
against the War Department, and to manufac- 
ture excuses for his oversight, (to use a very 
mild term,) he has forgotten his own evidence, 
given under oath, before the Committee on the 
Conduct of the War, as follows : ' * 

Question. — Could not the advance on Richmond from 
Williamsburg have been made with better prospect of suc- 
cess by the James River than by tho route pursued, and 
what were the reasons for taking the route adopted 1 

Answer. — I do not think that the navy at that time was 
in a condition to mako the line of the James River per- 
fectly suro for onr supplies. Tho line of tho Pamunkey 
offered greater advantages in that respect. The place was 
iu a better position to effect a junction with any troops 
that might move from Washington on the Fredericksburg 
line. I remember that the idea of moving on the James 
River was seriously discussed at that time. But the con- 
clusion was arrived at that, under tho circumstances then 
existing, tho route actually followed was tho best. I think 
the Morrimac was destroyed while we were at Williams- • 
burg. 

Next to the taking away of McDowell's corps 
the most important specification against the 
Administration for interference, has been found- 
ed upon the compelling of General McClellan to 



8 



base himself upon the York and Pamunkey 
rivers, instead of the James, in order to con- 
nect with McDowell, and General McClfcllan 
himself does not scruple to assert it, (hough, in 
so doing, he contradicts himself. The stamp 
of disingenuous afterthought — so palpable on 
every page of the report to those who are fa- 
miliar with the march of events of this cam- 
paign — is here made, palpable to the general 
reader. 

On the 18th of May oar depot was firmly es- 
tablished on the York river. The army was 
well nigh up to the Chickahominy, the right 
wing on the New Bridge road, the left wing on 
the Bottom's Bridge road. 

General Barnard has given In his report a 
eoncise description of that (now) well-known 
stream, calling it " one of the most formidable 
military obstacles that could be opposed to the 
advance of an army ; an obstacle to which an 
ordinary river, though it be of considerable 
magnitude, is ^comparatively slight." Formid- 
able as it was, General B. further remarks, 
" the barrier of the Chickahominy being left 
unguarded at Bottom's Bridge, no time should 
have been lost in making use of the circum- 
stance to turn and seize the passage of New 
Bridge, which might have been done by the 
28th, and even earlier, had measures been 
pressed for taking it." 

la reference to the same period and the same 
obstacle we find in the report before us, (p. 
100, 1st par.,) " In view of the peculiar char- 
acter of the Chickahominy, and the liability of 
its bottom land to sudden inundation, it became 
necessary to construct between Bottom's Bridge 
and Mechanicsvilie, eleven (11) new bridges, 
all long and difficult, with extensive log-way 
approaches." 

It may here be remarked that we knew as 
little of the "peculiar character of the Chicka- 
hominy" and "the liability of its bottom land 
to sudden inundations" as we confessedly did 
of the topography and roads and physical char- 
acter of this whole region — nothing at all. 

The " eleven new bridges," (including in this 
enumeration the railroad bridge, Bottom's 
Bridge, anp New Bridge) are here emphatically 
mentioned as if at that date, (May 24,) it was 
as " necessary to construct" all these, as if the 
construction of each and all had been pa;t of 
the programme, preliminary to any further mo- 
tion. If this is not asserted, the idea is con- 
veyed by the 1st par., p. 100, and confirmed by 
the 8th and 9th. (" The work upon the bridges 
was commenced at once," &c, &c. ) 

By reference to General Barnard's report, (p. 
21,) it will be seen that, at this period, three 
points for bridges were selected in front of the 
right wing of the army near " New Bridge,'' 
viz. : one, a half mile above ; another, tie same 
distance below the " New Bridge;'' and the New 
Bridge itself. The latter was the crossing of 
the turnpike, and required no more than an 
hour or two of work in throwing a pontoon 
bridge, when the time of crossing should come. 
The other two required oorduroy work, which 



cou'd not be done at all, (at Feast it was not- 
part of the plan to do it,) until Ihegame moment 
should arrive. All that could be done is stated 
in General Barnard's rep rt, viz. : to "Collect 
the bridge materials ami corduroy stuff ;" nor 
was any very ex ensive work anticipated, as 
the bottom laud-s were quite dry, and no inun- 
dation had yet occurred or was anticipated. 
General McClellan was not waiting for the 
bridges, but the bridges were waiting for Gen- 
eral McCIe Ian. At Bottom's Bridge, (one of 
the " eleven,") two. new bridges had been com- 
pleted, approaches and all, on the 23d, (May.) 
On the 27th the railroad bridge was completely 
repaired. 

Intermediate between Bottom's Bridge and 
the three points mentioned by General Barnard, 
(where alone a passage was to bo forced,) 
General Sumner had Uuilt two bridges with 
long corduroy approaches through the swamp; 
they were both finished about the 28th. There 
was no cnemj- to oppose their construction. 

Gen. Barnard says: "So far as engineering 
operations were concerned, the whole army 
could have been thrown over as early as the 
28th." And such an operation was daily looked 
f r in the army, and was the avowed intention 
of Gen. McClellan. 

But, (between Gen. McClellan's plans and 
the r execution there is always a " but,") " a 
considerable force on his right flank " caused 
him to delay and to send off Porter to achieve 
his ' glorious victories" which so puzzled the 
President, and of which he is so unable to "ap- 
preciate the magnitude." 

This really useless expedition was under- 
taken just at the moment when Gen. McClellan 
was "ready," (if he tver was ready,) to fore? 
the pas:age of the Chickahominy. The last 
few days of comparatively dry ground, favor- 
able for the execution of this operation, were 
thus lost. On the 30th, the tremendous rain 
storm set in whioh inundated the swamp and 
bottom lands. Oa the 3lst, the enemy attacked 
our isolated left wing. Had he delayed flio 
attack twenty-four hours, it would have been 
fatal to that wing, and put a disastrous period 
to the campaign ; for Sumner cmld not have 
crossed, and the two corps assailed would have 
been cruhed without his_ aid. Man c*nnot 
control the elements indeed, and man, perbap - !, 
could not foresee this inundation; but every 
delay, in miitary affairs, is a risk, and such 
proved to be the risks which this needless delay 
involved — a delay voluntarily incurred in a 
fal-e and dangerous position. 

The promptness of Sumner, and the intelligent 
foresight he displayed, enabled him to reach 
the field, and to turn defeat into victory. His 
columns were formed and their heads pushed 
np to the bridges, that, when the expected 
order should come, he might be at once in mo- 
tion. Thereaf'er the battles which ensued took 
the usual course. Gen. Sumner, the highes;. 
officer of the army nex to Gen. McClellan, ar» 
rived late in the day, with a part of his corp% 
to mee* the enemy oa ground he h *d never 



Been — to aid another hody of troops the po- 
sitions of which lie knew nothing of. Right- 
fully, after Lis arrival, he comma ded on the 
battle-field, but neithr he nor Ge 1. Helntz'e- 
man encountered each-other, nor could act wi h 
intelligent reference to <ach ether's position 
No Bupr me h ad, knowing the whole groun i. 
gave unity to action or cohere^ c i to the m issts. 
On the second day, indeed, Gen. McCiellan, 
when the serious woik of the dny was ended, 
made his appearance - . 

'.the enemy being finallj're ulsed, at an early 
hour on Suuda , (June Is',) the "only available 
means" of unhing our ibices at Fair Oaks for 
an advance on Richmond, and thus to obtain 
Eorne results fiom our victory, was not to march 
them tweoty-three mils, as described p. 12, 
(a considerable exaggeration of the necessary 
average maich of tue army by the route de- 
scribed,) but to reovo a force from Sumner's 
command to t ke possession.of the heights near 
Garnett's and Mrs. Price's houses, and then ti 
bring over our right wing by the New Bridg ••, 
(actually made and passable for troops and ar 
tillcry at 8: : 5 A. M. on the mo:r.ing of June 
1st.) A s^n^le division could have cleared those 
heights. 

Gen. McCiellan states, (p. 113): 

In short, the idea of muting the two wings of the army 
hi time to, rnako a rigoro pu i I oJ tho ouemy, with the 
prospect trf overtaking him before be reached Richmond, 
only five mill's distant from the field of battle, is simply 
absurd, and was, I presume, never for a moment seriously 
entertained by any one connected with liio Army of the 
Potomac 

An ingeuious evasion of the real point r.t 
issue. It w^ s not to '• overtake the enemy be- 
fore he reached Richmond," but to follow him 
up into Richmond, 'lust con.-titutcd a "taking 
advantage" of the victory of " Fair Oaks." That 
we might have catered Richmond, all the iafor- 
niation since obtain d goes to prove. Vv'm. 
Henry Hunbcrt says : 

The. roads into Richmond were literally crowded with 
stragglers, gome throwing away their guns, some breaking 
them on tli - trees — all with' the same .-t^i.v, that their reg- 
Iments had been " cut to pieci a ;' Ui it the " Yankees were 
■warming on the Chickahominy like bees," and " fighting 
like devils." In two days of the succeeding week the pro- 
vost marshal's guards collected between i,00;t and 5,000 
Stragglers and sent them into camp. What had become of 
(he c^uniaud no cue knew. 

Gen. Heintzleman states that, "after the 
enemy retired, he gave orders to pursue them;" 
that he " countermanded" the order on Sunday, 
in consequence of Gen. Kearney's suggestion 
and allega iou that "Gen. McCiellan would 
order a general advance in two or three days." 
The next Burning, on learning that the enemy 
had fallen back in great confusion, he sent his 
troops " forward, and they got wihin about 
four miles of Richmond;" but, on sending word 
of it to Gen. McCiellan, he was ordered to 
"stop and fall back to the old lines." 

Gen. Samner testifies : 

" If we had attacked with our whole force, we should 
have swept everything before us;" and "I think the ma- 
jority of the officers who were there Uiink 60 now." 



Gen Keyes testifies: 

After the battle of Seven Pines there was another tim« 
when I think, if the aTniy had pressed on after the 
enemy with great vigor, we should ha\ ! gone* to Rich- 
mond; and iu connection with this last, i am c »n,p Hod tt 
state that 1 think (en. McCiellan does not excel in that 
quality which enables him to know when t > spring. 

We have, thus positively, t'hc opinions of the 
commanders of the three corps engaged in the 
battle. 

The Prince (*e Joinville says : 

Some: persons thought, and thinK- stj.ll, that if, instead of 
Sumner al -no, ail the divisions of the right wing had been 
ordered to cross the river, the order would have been ex- ' 
ecuted. It is easy t<> see what must have happened if) 
intend of 15,000, 5O,00Q men b id been thrown upon John- 
ston's (lank. But Sumner's bridge, no doubt, would not 
have sufficed for the pa i ichaforce. At midnight 

the rear of his column was still stni rgling slowly to cross 
this rude structure, aga 'ust all the difficu li -a of a roadway 
funned of trunks, wliich slipp d and rolled under tb» 
horses' feet, of a muddy morass at either end, and of a 
pitchy' dark night rendered darker still by the density of 
tin- forest. But Bever.d other bridges were ready to be 
thrown across at other points. Not a uiome it should have 
been lost in fixing them, and no*i . i 1 should Imtfe been 
paid to the efforts of the enemy to prevent this & 
done. Johnston It d paradi I a bTrig >usln,&sa 

sort of scarecrow, at the point fitting for 

this enterprise; out t-c stake was so va ', the re \iitt tot* 
sought after so important, the < id and so 

favorable for striking a decisive blow, that, in our judgment, 
nothing should have prevented t\e arm;/ from i 
t'tis operation at every ris.'.: II re again it paid the penalty 
of that American tar tin iss which ia more marked in th« 
character of the army'thanin that i d . . _ It wai 

not till seven in the evening that the resolution was takon 
of throwing over all the bridges, a id passing the whol« 
army over by daybreak to the right bank. It was too late. 

The Prince here labors under that inexcusa- 
ble confusion of ideas which arises from an 
amiable unwillingness to carry his own convic- 
tions to a logical conclusion. " It was not till 
seven in the evening that the resolution was 
taken," &c. Now, the army had been waiting 
for several clays for that " resolution" to be 
taken; the moment it was taken the bridge bnild- 
ingcommenced. The rising flood and the dark- 
ness of the night interfered with the progresi 
till daylight dawned; but at eight o'clock tka 
next niotning on» bridge was finished, and tho 
passage practicable for all arms ; during the day 
too other passages became practicab e for in- 
fantry. So far from being too late, the bridge* 
were ready just in time. 

The Prince further says : 

What might not have happened, if at this moment th« 
35,003 fresh troops on tho other bank of the Chickahominy 
could have appeared upon the flank of this disordered army, 

alter passing the bridges in safely ! 

Gen. Barnard states (p. 23 of his " Report") 
that " at 8.15 A. M ., (June 1st,) the pontoon 
bridge at the site of New Bridge was com leta 
and practicable for infantry, cavalry and artil- 
lery. About noon the " upper trestle bridge" 
was practicable foi infantry. It was not till 
night that a practicable bridge for infantry was 
obtained at the ' lower trestle bridge.' " He 
adds, that owing to the overflowed condi- 
tion of the bottom lands, the two last bridg. s 
could not be made practicab'e for " cavalry o-r 
artillery'' without extensive corduroying. Ha 
further remarks: "There was one way, how- 
ever, to unite the army on the other side; it 



10 



was to take advantage of a victory at Fair 
Oaks, to sweep at once the enemy from his 
position opposite New Bridge, and simulta- 
neously to bring over, by the New Bridge,'' 
(with wbich, we remark, a raised turnpike 
communicated,) "our troops of the right wing, 
which could then have met with little or no 
resistance. * • ■ * . f. . * * 

We have passed through one crisis, and have 
shown that it was invited by the dispositions of 
Gen. McClellan, by which our army was per- 
mitted to be for a whole week divided into two 
distinct portions, entirely isolated. 'This ar- 
rangement took place at a moment when Gen. 
McClellan avows his belief that the enemy's 
numbers " greatly exceeded our own," and that 
he has every reason to expect desperate work. 
kp. 98 ) The weaker of the two isolated por- 
tions was thrust forward to within seven miles 
of Richmond, with no obstacle whatever be- 
tween it aid the enemy's superior forces, on 
ground that had no natural strength, and to 
which little artificial strength could be given, 
under the circumstances. The position, too, 
in which our troops were thus risked was never 
seen by the Commanding General until after 
the battle of Fair Oaks. 

The weakness of the enemy, combined with 
nis blunders, alone saved us. Gen. McClellan 
did not believe in his weakness — he had no 
right to count on his blunders. Such is the 
generalship which can do nothing "rapid or 
brilliant," owing to the alleged numerical weak- 
ness, but which, in delay, hesitation, and un- 
certainty, incurs risks such as the rashest of 
daring and energetic generals seldom encounter. 
The failure of the enemy to crush our left 
wing, though he unquestionably exerted his 
whole strength to do it, might well shake Gen. 
McClellan's credulity with regard to his "super- 
ior numbers," and authorize his otherwiseiliog- 
ical statement (see telegram, June 7th, p. 115) 
that he should be " in perfect readiness" to move 
forward and "take Richmond the moment McCall 
reaches here and the ground will admit the 
passage of artillery." With "superior num- 
bers" of the enemy and " strong works" around 
Richmond, it is astonishing with what facility 
he is always "taking Richmond" — in his dis- 
patches .' 

Again, (June 10,) though he has information 
that°" Beauregard has arrived," and "some oi 
his troops are to follow him," he announces, 
"I shall attack as soon as the weather and 
ground will permit ;" and he reiterates in the 
the same dispatch, lest he should not be under- 
stood or believed, "I wish to be distinctly 
understood that whenever the weather permits 
I will attack with whatever force I may have," 
&c. (p. 110.) 

McCall arrived on the 12th and 13th. The 
rains of the early part of the month slackened 
as the mouth advanced, so thaton the 14th the 
General announces, " weather now very favor- 
able." The ground grew firmer as the June 
sun continued to act upon it, and by the 20th 
artillery could operate with facilty. On this 



date the General telegraphs that he has "no 
doubt Jackson Has been reinforced from here." 
Now, then, is the time to '■ move forward " and 
to "take Richmond." Bat, instead of " perfect 
readiness," we hear the " difficulties of the 
country" expatiated upon — we learn that "by 
to-morrow night" certain defensive works will 
be finished — that the construction of these "de- 
fensive works" is rendered necessary by his 
•' inferiority of numbers," so that he can bring 
the " greatest possible numbers into action," 
&c, &c. Instead of •' attacking with whatever 
J'urce he has" — instead of "perfect readiness" 
to act, (though he learns the enemy has been 
reduced by detachments,) he is wailing for 
"defensive works;" and, instead of "taking 
Richmond," or doing anything toward it, ha 
" would be glad to have permission to lay be- 
fore the. President, by letter or telegraph, hig 
views as to the present state of military affair.s 
throughout the whole country" I 

Bear in mind that, two months before, Gen. 
McClellan had been relieved from a position 
which made the expression of such views a part 
of his official duty ; and now afcr having been 
so relieved, at such a moment as this, whea the 
President is eagerly scanning each telegram to 
know if the arm}' has really '-advanced" and 
'taken Richmond," he is astounded to find 
only an offer of "views" on the "present state 
of military affairs throughout the whole conn-' 
try," coupled with a modest request to know 
"the numbers and position of the troops not 
under his command in Virginia or elsewhere." 
In other words, Gen. McClellan, in a moment 
so critical to himself, and under circumstances 
which should concentrate all his thoughts up- 
on the work immediately in h>nd, aslre to b» 
informed of the numbers and positions of all 
the troops of the United States 1 

So neither McCall's arrival nor fine weather 
constituted "perfect readiness to advance." 
All the "eleven" bridges arc finished — eventha 
"defensive works" will be ready "by to-morrow 
night" (viz., June 21,) — and yet he does not 
"move forward." 

Here is something, at least, that ought to 
start him. Thus far, "all the information pre- 
vious to June 24," &c, (p. 119) induced tbt 
belief that Jackson was at Gordonsville, re- 
ceiving reinforcernentsyVom Richmond. Not* 
(June 24,) Gen. McClellan learns that Jiftkson 
was moving to Fred ricshall with his own troops 
and all those "reinforcements" that had gone 
to him, for the purpose of "attacking my rear 
on the 28th." 

Surely now is the time, if ever, to "move 
forward ;" in two or three days the enemy will 
receive heavy reinforcements. ; So, at last, on 
the 25th, our bridges andjn.trenchuients being 
"at last completed," (N. B. The bridges wer« 
all completed by the 19.th,the "defensive works" 
were announced June 20, as " to be completed 
to-morrow night," viz., June 21st, and, we re- 
mark, they were ready enough at any time for 
.in advance.) something is really to be done. 
The reader holds his breath to know what ia to 



11 



foHow — it is "era advance of our picket lines of the 
left preparatory to si. general iorward move- 
men'." One would think that the art of "prep- 
aration'' bad been exhausted, but if so simple 
as to believe that the time (of preparing to do a 
thing ever ends, and the time of executing it 
ever commences, his military education could 
not have been acquired under Maj. Gen. M ..-,- 
(Ji Man. This preparatory operation at ally 
rate must be the last. But alas! though "suc- 
c-sseful in what wo have undertaken/' the cour- 
age which, in the morning, was screwed up to 
order "an advance of our picket 1 ne of the left, 
preparatory to a general forward movement," 
baa all oozed/out by "(J. 15 P-. M." "Several 
contrabands,' (we hope they were intelligent!!) 
"just ij," announce that -'Jackson's advance 
is at or near Hanover C. H. :" that the perpet- 
ual bugbear, Beauregard, "had arrived," and 
that, the rebel " force is stated a 200,000 men. 
including Jackson and Beauregard."* 

The '' general forward movement " of the 
morning i; totally forgotten after the interview 
with these "contrabands," and we have this 
f. cble_an«ouneemcnt: ''But this army will do 
all in the power of men to hold their position 
end repulse any attack." Regretting his " in- 
feriority of numbers," for which he is not 
" responsible," he "will do all that he can do 
with the splendid army he has the honor to 
command," (Oh, that in such a moment surely 
every reader will aspirate such an army had but 
a leader,) and it destroyed by " overwhelming 
number," "can at least die with it and share 
its fate." For once, however, he feels that "there 
is no use in ajain asking for reinforcements." 

Thus in the morning we are treated with a 
grand "preparatory movement," (what the 
particular necessity of losing a whole day, when 
time was so precious, in this absurd manner, 
the uninitiated can scarcely comprehend.) for a 
"general advance," and by sunset we have 
this feeble wail of despair. Does any one 
believe that any such sudden and portentous 
change had come over the state of affairs, as 
would justify such a change in the spirit of the 
General, er that the tales of " several contra- 
bands " dowld so completely turn -the tables? 
Itf be does not believe this, then the alternative 
is to believe the report which contains such 
■tatements to be a mere vail — transparently 
thin — with painful laboc, drawn over the 
writer's conscious ignorance of his own plans, 
intentions, or situation. 

He goes on to say, (p. 122,) "on the 26th, 
the day upon which I had decided as the time of 
*wr final advance," (it has already been at least 
gix days since the wl«ole category of conditions 
for moving forward and takmg Richmond has 
been fulfilled, and six days since an additional 
condition turned up in his favor — the reinforc- 
ing of Jackson at Gordonsville, from Richmond 
— it has been two days since he learned that 



* As early as June 10, the Gem-rul has " information that 
B«jaurugjml had arrived," and "that. some of his troops Were 
to follow Iiini." The "uontrulmuUis" bring no news alter 
nil. 



the powerful eorps of Jackson, th"S reinforced, 
was but. two or three, days march off, on his 
way to join Leo,) ''the enemy attacked our 
right in forco, and turned my attention to tho 
protection of our communications and depots o£ 
supply ;" both of which, by tha bv, were lost, 
and were expected to be lost, since he telegraphs 
the Secretary of War "not to be disco ragpd 
if you learn diat my communications are cut 
off and even Yorktovjn in possession of /he enemy,/ 1 

Now, on the morning of the 26th. Jackson's 
main body was yet a full d ;fs march off. It 
was noon on the 26tb, (p. 124.) before the enemy 
was discovered to be in motion, and 3 p m., 
(p. 125,) before he had "formed his line of 
battle " to attack McCall, at Beaver Dam Creek. 
Tho troops which attacked on the 2Gih were 
not Jackson's, but a part of the very for<-e Gen. 
McClellan ivas to have attacked himself. Thus we 
learn the curious and astonishing fact that the 
"general forward movement," or, as styled, 
p. 122, " our final advance decided upon for 
i hat day," wa3 postponed and abandoned in 
consequence of an attack of the enemy's which 
look place at 3 p. m of the s<ime. day ! 

Now if the case was really hopeless, we would 
fold our hands in resignation, only asking why 
the conclusion was not arrived at three weeks 
earlier; for we affirm that nothing happened 
up to the 2Gth to make a " moving forward and 
taking Richmond" more impracticable than 
when Gen. McClellan, (on the 7th,) announced 
that he should be " in perfect readiness " when 
McCall arrived and the ground dried — condi- 
tions all fulfilled as early as the 20th. Even to 
the 25th nothi g that has o ecurred has daunted 
the ostensible determination to " advance and 
take Richmond," and a grand "preparatory" 
movement to a "general forward movement" 
was ordered. But man cannot, control events, 
and who could forbode that, almost simultane- 
ously with the crd r for "an advance of our 
picket line of the left preparato-y," &c, &c, 
several contrabands would be on their way with 
tidings of Beauregard and Jackson ! that a 
"final advance" for to-morrow, (the 2Gth,) 
will be utterly frustrated by a counter advance 
made by a disobliging enemy at three o'clock to 
the afternoon of that day ! 

Tru'y " the case is a difficult one," but we 
need not loose hope, for the General will de 
his best to "out-maneuver, out-wit, and out- 
fight the enemy." 

With an army of 100,000 menpresenl for duty 
— an enemy diyided into two portions, even if 
" greatly superior in number, we would fancy 
something might be done, even had we not this 
voluntary pledge of brilliant generalship. In- 
deed it has been our notion that these were 
just the circumstances that called for energetic 
action — a prompt and bold initative on the part 
of a general. 

Admitting that the enemy really numbered, 
(as is stated on the authority of the " secret 
service,") 180.000 men, and admitt'ng that 
the "advance" on to Richmond had ceased 
to be practicable and that a retreat to the James 



1^ 



River had become Micbc«f course, why amuse us 
in this official R port of past events with the pre- 
tence, kept up fill tire 2-jih, hay, to the 26th, 
Of a "general forward movement?" Such a 
movement was surely more practicable whi'e 
Jackson was ar Gordonsvitlo, or even when 
only three marches off. than when he arrived. 
Why, if re<illy intended, was it not made ? 

In view of a retreat to the James River it 
was wise to hold (he position a; Beaver Dam 
on the 2Gth. All Porter's baggagfe train might 
have been, (and we believe was.) brought over 
on that day. So might have been the "siege 
guns." I was a blunder unparalleled to ex- 
pose Porter's corps to fight a battle by itself on 
the 27th against "overwhelming forces oF the 
enemy. With perfect ease that corps might, 
have been brought over on the night of the 
2Gth, and if nothing more brilliant could have 
been thought of, the movement to the James 
River might have been in full tide of execution 
on the 2 7 1 1 1 A more propitious mom nt could 
not have been chosen, for, besides Jackson's 
Own forces, A. P. II ill's and Longstreet's corps 
were on the north (left) bank of the Chicka- 
hominy on the night of the 20;h. Such a move- 
ment need not have been discovered to the 
enemy till far enough advanced to insure suc- 
cess. " At any rate he could kivve done no 
better in preventing it than he actually did 
afterwards. The Prince de Joinville, conceding 
the necessity of the movement says, "there 
was a va t difference between making this re- 
treat," (styling it very poperly what it was,) 
"in one's own time ami hy a free, spontaneous 
movement, and making it hastily under the 
threatening pressure of two hostile armies;" 
and surely the difference became vaster when. 
instead, of being made merely under procure. 
ft became the necessary result of a decided 
defeat. 

[Gen. Barnard affirms that 180,000, is an ab- 
surd over-estimate of the enemy's numbers; 
that even the " secret service" estimates do no* 
warrant, it, sine 500 men to a ■ batt lion was 
considered an ampl • allowance, and the 200 
battalions and other organizations would not 
make ever 1-20,000 men at utmost.; that Win. 
H. T. Ilurlbcil, who wa-s in Richmond at the 
Vime, makes the numto but 120,000; and 
finally, that the rebel Gen. Stuart, in an inter- 
view with one of our general officers, not long 
after, pledjrd his honor, that Lee's forces did 
not exceed nirtety thousand.] 

Conceding, however, to Gen. McClellan an 
adversary which his (secret service," aided by 
"several contrabands," had conjured up, the 
passive inactivity witli which he met this crisis 
forfeits for him every claim to generalship 
even of the most indifferent character. With 
an enemy 180,000 strong, divided in two dis- 
. tinct portions, we believe that there might 
have been found some way of displaying gen- 
eralship; at least, with entrenchments on the 
right bank of the, Chtckahominy which 20.000 
men could have held against 100,000, he need 
not iave permit ted one third of his army to be 



defeated on the other bank, within sight and 
cannon range of the other two thirds. But, 
considering the real strength of his enemy, (as 
we believe it to have been.) a more lamentable 
fiilure to fulfill "hopes formerly placed in 
him," ■' mo-e striking instance not so much of 
being " out-.witied" as of destitution of " wit," 
anu of unreadiness in action, is scarcely to be 
found in military annals. 

The enemy having been checked at Beaver 
Dam Creek in the af ernoon of the 26tb, no 
time should have b?en lost, in withdrawing 
from this position and in bringing Porter over 
the Cbickahominy, as could have been done 
with the greatest ease on the night of the 2Gtb. 
If he had been determined, however, to light 
on that si'de, he shuld have been -withdrawn' 
in the night to the position selected, and at 
the same time reinforced with the whole of our 
left wing, except. 20 000 men to hold the en- 
trenchments ami Bottom's Bridge, and to guard 
the passage of the White Oak swamp. Thirty 
or forty thousand men should have been sent 
over to Porter. v 

Gen. McCall who commanded the force at 
Heaver Dam Creek which received the rebel 
attack under A. P. Hill on the 2Gth, says in 
reference to the order to withdraw : 

This order, I confess, gave me some concern. Ilad it 
readied, mi. at midnight, the movement might have been 
made without dilflcuity and, without Ipsa ; but ndwit would 
he daylight hetbre the movement which, under lire, is one 
of the must delicate and difficult in the art of war, coald 
lie commenced. 

The movement ordered at nightfall of the 
26th, could have been executed without risk or 
damage. Delayed till morning, it involved tho 
risk of the utter d struction of Porter's corps 
of 27,000 men. Not a slight risk merely, snch 
.is we must constantly incur in making war, 
but a serious risk, and, moreover, a totally un- 
necessary one. Porter acknowledged his hes- 
itation rt) give the order Co withdrawing his 
force, and even seemed, when morning came, 
inclined to suspend it, alleging the fear that 
McCalPs division would be cut to pieces. Not 
only McCall's division, but. For er's whole com- 
mand, were in fearful risk of being " cut to 
pieces" of captured, by being wher • they were 
that morning of the 27th, as we shall show. 

Gen. Stoneman, with a small command of 
infantry and cavalry, had feen sent towards 
"Old Church" to obstruct roads, destroy 
bridges, and prevent, as far as possible, Porter's 
right from being turned. Jackson, who, in 
marching from Hanover C. H., kept well towards 
the Pamunkey, with the obvious intention of 
turning Porter's right, on coming in sight of 
Stoneman's troops near "Old Church," bore off 
towards Mechanicsville. His troops filed past 
in full view of Stoneman from 4 p. m. till after 
dark and were estimated by him at 35,000 
strong. (Jackson now had, besides his own 
troops, those "reinforcements " which we have 
seen were sent a week or two ago out of Rich- 
mond, to join him. Lot us suppose that Jack- 
son, instead of being diverted from his course 



13 



by the handful of troops of Stoncrnm, (and it 
13 astonishing that lie should have been,) had 
kept on toward Cold Hatbor. Porter's ca^e 
would have been hopeless. 

He bore off towards Mcchanicsville, and en- 
camped sou; t'« hero near Shady Grove Church. 
Had he put hi-- t oops in motion before dawn, 
arid marched parallel to Porter's line of retreat, 
ho could luiv • attacked bis retiring columns, 
and rendered it d fficult. if not impossible, for 
hku to reach the position where he actu lly 
gave battle. Finally, that the force of Poiter 
was not utterly destroyed by its defeat, is due 
simply to the fact (not to have been expected) 
that the enemy did not commence his attack 
till 3£ p. m., and did not accomplish his vic- 
tory until alter nightfall These, it may be 
urged, were risks incidental to war ; but they 
wore risks of the gravest character, and we are 
unable to see what equivalent risks (rather than 
positive advantages) would have attended the 
withdrawal of Porter the night of the 26th. 

•Sen. McClellan announces that '-the object 
we sought f r had bTen obtained." "The en- 
emy was held at bay " (Cut why incur ^disas- 
trous defeat to hold him "at bay" in' a peti- 
tion where he could uot attack us unless we 
chose to be attacked.) '■ Our siege guns and 
materials were saved." (Everything was^br ought 
over on the 26th except the siege guns, and they 
m'igbt have been ) " and the right wing now 
joined the main body of the army,'' (which it 
might Cave done on the night of the 26th.) 

Per contra., we lost twenty-two guns, '-cap- 
tured by the enemy," (better have abandoned 
and spiked the 'siege artillery" than to have 
lost in bailie twenty-two guns.) We lost in 
killed and wounded 9,000 men, when Porter 
might have been withdrawn wi«hout the loss 
of a man, and we incurred a disheartening de- 
feat besides. 

Two defensive batlles have now been fought 
on the Chiekahominy, atid Clen. McClellan h s 
either blundered into lighting them, or been 
compelled, by the circumstances of his position, to 
fight themokthe first with about one half, the sec- 
ond with less than one third of his force; and 
now, (not a single offensive action having oc- 
• curred during this invasive campaign,) with a 
''splendid army," as he. rightly styles it, he is 
forced, though sti 1 superior", or at least equal 
in numbers, to •' change his base," or in other 
words, to beat a retreat. 

He has spent weeks in building bridges, 
which establish a close connection between the 
wings of his army, and then fights a great bat- 
9 tie with a smaller fraction of his army than 
when he had a single available bridge, and that 
remote. He, with great labor constructs "de- 
fensive works," in o*der that, he " may bring the 
greatest possible numbers into action," and 
again exhibits his ability to utilize his means 
by keeping C5.000 men idle behind them, while 
35,000, unaided by " defen ive works" of any 
kiud, fight the bulk of his adversary's forces, and 
are of course overwhelmed by "superior num- 
bers.'* 



[After stating that, according even to the en- 
emy's own confessions, had Ueu. McClellan in- 
stead of fighting a useless and disasirous battle 
with one third of his forces on the 27th, united 
his army the night of the 20ih and marched on 
Richmond, he would have had a fair chance of 
success Gen. C. proceeds t . describe tue tiub- 
sequent battles of the " Seven Days."] 

On the 30th Of J«uue our army stretched across 
the country from White Oak Swamp liridge to 
the James, occupying a line about eight miles 
long. Franklin held the right at the bridge, 
Porter and Keyes the extreme left. Further 
than midway (about five miles) from the James, 
this-long line of battle was intersected by two 
(the "Charles City" and the '■ New Market" or 
•' Long Bridge") converving road i. Here was 
(he decisive point — if the line should he broken 
here it would be the destruction of our army. 
Here, too, the enemy made a desperate effort. 
Lee commanded in person, and Lo gstreet's 
and A. P. Hill's vcteiiu divi-ions, numbering 
18,000 to 20,000 men, made the attack. Jeff. 
Davis himself was said to be present. (So Gen. 
McCail, while a prisdugr that evening, was in- 
formed.) It was an eventful day and an event- 
ful point ; central, too, to th : general po.ition 
of the army. Where was the CominaudingGen- 
eral during this battle? At the very extreme left, 
and for a considerable por ion of the time on a 
gunboat, (see p. lo'3,) -'having made airange- 
ments for iustaut communication by signals." 
Head the report of Gen. McCail, the extracts 
from those of Sumuer, and Hcintzlcman, and 
others, and their testimony before ihu Commit- 
tee on the Conduct of ttie War, and see how 
much the control of the Commanding General 
was needed ; his knowledge of the field, and 
of the positions of the different troops. Then 
think of the disastrous, consequences (hat would 
have followed the breaking of our due at that 
point. (Longstreet informed Gen. McCail that 
Lee had 70,000 men bearing on it, a 1 of which 
would arrive before midnight,) and let each one 
lorm his own conclusion as to whether the Com- 
manding General hud on this occasion any ap- 
preciation of his duties, or, if he had, whether 
lie discharged them. 

" It was very late at night," says General XIc- 
Clcllan, "before my aids returned to give ma 
the results of the dag's fighting along the whole 
line, and the true position of affairs." It may 
well be doubted whether, in all the recorded 
reports or 'dispatches" of military command- 
ers, a parallel to this extraordinary avowal can 
be found. We supposed It the especial busl* 
ness of a general to know, at each moment, 
" the true position of affairs," and to have some 
agency in ruling it. Here we find the " day's 
fighting" all done, the results, for better or 
worse, accomplished, and -'very late at night" 
the Commanding Geuer. I just Learning aboat 
them ! '' Very late at night" General Franklin 
concluded he could no longer hold his position, 
and retired, sending word to Generals Sumner 
and Heintzlemau. These officers, though they 
assert they received no such message, heard of 



14 



the movement, somehow, and wisely concluded 
that they must retire, too. Here again was a 
matter of the gravest importance, which, that 
it should be decided at the proper time, required 
the Commanding General to be at hand — to 
kno,w, promptly, " the situation" and the " re- 
sults of the day's fighting." General McClellan 
makes no pretence that he gave any orders to 
Franklin, nor that he would have given any to 
the other corps commanders had hot Franklin, 
without order", fallen back. He affirms that on 
learning of Franklin's withdrawal he sent orders 
to Sumner and Heintzleman to withdraw, but 
admits tha-t. they were both in motion without 
his orders. Now, had not this withdrawal taken 
place that night, the next day would have prob- 
ably witnessed the destruction of the Army of 
the Potomac. Lee, as we have seen, was at the 
very central point, ready to break in, with a 
force of 70,000 men, as slated by Ltmgstreet to 
General McCall. The salvation of the army 
was due, not to McClellan's arrangements or 
foresight, but to General Franklin's fortunate 
decision to withdraw. The army was saved in 
tpite of General McClellan's ignorance of the 
" position of affairs" and " results of the day's 
fighting," and consequent incapacity to give 
intelligent orders. 

Our army is now concentrated on the James ; 
but we have another day's fighting before us, 
and this day we may expect the concentrated 
attack of Lee's whole army. We know not at 
what hour it will come — possibly late, for it re- 
quires time to find out our new position and to 
bring together the attacking columns — yet we 
know not when it will come. Where, this day, 
is the Commanding General ? Off, with Captain 
Rodgers, to se'ect'^he final positions of the 
army and its depots." He does not tell us that 
it was on a gunboat, and that this day not even 
" signals" would keep him in communication 
with bis army, for his journey was ten or fifteen 
miles down the river ; and he was thus absent 
till late in the afternoon. 

This is the first time we ever had reason to 
believe that the highest and first duty of a gen- 
eral, on the day of battle, was, separating him- 
self i'rom his army, to reconnoitre a place of 
retreat 1 However that may be, that night and 
the day following, the whole army, with the ex- 
ception of General Keyes' corps, marched into 
a cul-de-sac from which it could not have been 
extricated had the enemy been able promptly 
to follow us up. 

We think it will now be understood why " a 
large number of Gcperal McClellan's highest 
officers — indeed a majority of those whose opin- 
ions have been reported to me," (see General 
Halleck's letter, p. 157) are in favor of " the 
withdrawal from the James." If the enemy 
was, indeed, as General McClellan estimated, 
(General Halleck's letter, p. 156) 200,000 strong, 
and daily increasing, a renewal of an offensive 
campaign from the James was simple madness. 
Once, by his own accounts, he had been foiled 
and driven back, with ho little hazard of the 
rain of his army, by " supanio% numbers," and 



now he proposes to march again with 120,00? 
(about what his army would have numbered 
with the 30,000 reinforcements, he asked) 
against Richmond, held by 200,000 men. N« 
one who has read attentively the report befor< 
us, and the dispatches therein contained, wiD 
be surprised at the want of logical sequence ia 
any particular plan, statement, or argument 
since complete destitution of such a quality if 
the characteristic of the whole ; but any intel- 
ligent reader will understand that there wcr« 
no rational chances of success, particularly af- 
ter recent experiences, in '• advancing on Rich- 
mond" defended by an army of 200,000 men 
inured to battles and elated by success, with 
but 120,000 men. He can understand, too, that 
another disastrous repulse in this region was 
likely to result in the. loss of the army and the 
capture of Washington — indeed, the ruin of the 
cause. 

If the enemy had 200,000 men it was to t« 
seriously appreheuded that, leaving 50,000 be- 
hind the "strong works" of Richmond, be 
would march at once with 150,000 men on 
Wahi; gton. Why shcuid he not? General 
McClellan and his eulogis's have held up a3 
higWly meritorious strategy the leaving of Wash- 
ington defended by less than 50 0«0 meu, with 
the enemy in its front estimated to be 1^0,000 ta 
150,800 strong, and moving eff to take anecoen- 
tric line of operations against Richmond; and now 
the reverse case is presented, but wiih an import- 
ant difference. The enemy at Manassas, on 
learning General McClellan's movement, could 
either fly to the defence of Richmond or attack 
Washington. Gen. McClellan says that this lat- 
ter course teas not to be feared. McClellan on the 
James, on learning that Lee with 150,000 men 
ia marching on Washington, can only attack 
Richmond ; by no possibility can he fly to the 
defence of Washington. Besides, he is inferior 
in numbers (according to his own estimate) even 
to Lee's marching army. Here, in a nutshell, is 
the demonstration of the folly of the grand 
strategic movement on Richmond, as given by 
its own projector. 

If the enemy had nothing like 200,000 men— 
(and a very reliable estimate put his forces in 
the early part of August at about 55,000 around 
Richmond, and the rest with Jackson confront- « 
ing Pope, probably not more than 40,000) — if 
he never had had more than 90,000, or at the 
utmost 120,000— if Gen. McClellan had been 
driven away from Richmond by equal or inferior 
numbers, there were still strong reasons, (wbkh 
we need not indicate,) after the recent experi- 
ence undergone, for not permitting him to incur 
the hazard of another advance. ( 

The critical situation of affairs at this period, 
the urgent necessity of providing for the safety 
of Washington and of effecting the reunion into 
one whole of our shattered at,d reduced armies 
in Virginia, demanded imperatively the with- 
drawal from the James. The great misfortune 
was that the order was not given immediately 
on our r°aching Harrison's Landing. 

Had Gen. McClellan made his "reports" »f 



15 



Ihe various actions of the Army of the Potomac 
is they occurred, he would probally have done 
himself more credit, (though the plight speci- 
mou we have in his report made July 15th, of 
(ho Seven D ays' battles barely warrants this 
epiuioa,) than he has by this laborious but dis- 
Ingenious production. lie has, however, done 
the country and done history a service. In 
riviy.g bo many of his own dispatches he has 
furnished the truest tests of his actual abilities 
as a general end a thinker, and in the matter 
sad i i the arrangement of it he has given us en 
Slustration of his animus as a historian. In 
&is point of view tho Report may be safely 
recommended to readers of all classes and all 
parties. In taking leave of the Army of the 
Potomac he eomewhat ostentatiously promised 
to make himself the historian of its exploits,, 
icd we hare before us now, in the pages we 
have just examined, the result of his six months' 
incubation on such a theme. 

u Whoever has committed no fault3 has not 
made war " was the remark of one of t*he great 
marshals of Franc© when questioned as to the 
cause of a defeat, and acknowledging k to have 
been the result of his own mistakes ; and £bere 
would have been no lack of indulgence and 
eharity for the failure of an inexperienced sub- 
altern suddenly converted into a general, and 
•ailed upon to plan campaigns and direct armies 
of such unusual magnitude, under circumstances 



of no ordinary difficulty, were they presented 
to us in the spirit of Marshal Tureune's avowal ; 
but when exactly the reverse i3 tho case, when 
the cla'm to eminent gencalship is arrogantly 
asserted, when plans which we have shown to 
be lacking in the essential elements of consis- 
tency in themselves, and of concert with thoso 
who must be depended upon to carry them out, 
are held up for cur f dmiration, when all faults 
are denied and the burden of each particular 
mishap, and, in the end, of the failure of the 
whole campa'gn, is thrown upon the Adminis- 
tration ; when, in short, the whole II port is 
one incessant complaint against the President 
and the War Department, culminating at length 
in the outrageous charge addressed to the Sec- 
retary of War on the eve of Porter's defeat, (a 
fit finale to the two days' blundering,) " You 
have dono your best to sacrifice this army," wa 
think charity should withdraw her mantle f.cm 
the errors and inconsistencies and incapacity 
which we here exhibit. 

[In the complete work of Gen. Bernard, the 
author's statements and opinions are supported 
by voluminous notes containing extracts from 
the evidence given before the Committee on the 
Conduct of the War, of Generals Sumner, Heint- 
zleman, Keyes, McCall, Franklin, fiitchc:ck, 
Assistant Secretary of the Navy Fox, Admiral 
Goldsborough, and others, and-by citations from 
other published documents.] 



PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN FOE 1864. 



UNION EXECUTIVE CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEE. 



lloy. E. P. MORGAN, of New York. Hon. E. B. WASHBURNE, of Illinois. 

" JAS. HARLAN, of Iowa. « It. B. VAN VALKENBOltG, N. Y. 

" L. M. MORRILL, of Maine. " J. A. GARFIELD, of Ohio. 

(Senate.) « J. 0. BLAINE, of Maiuo, 

(Mouse >•/ Kpri.mlativesJ 
B. D. MORGAN, C7<air.man, JAMES HARLAN, Treasurer. D. N. COOLEY, Sem-etary. 



COMMITTEE BOOMS, Washington, D. C, Sept. 2, 1SG4. 

PuAlt Sra: The Union Congressional Committer, in addition to the documents already published, propose to 
Issu? immediately the following documents for distribution among the people: 

1. McClellan's Military Career Reviewed and Exposed. 

2. George II. Petidl don, Ilia Disloyal Record and Antecedents. 

3. The t hicogo Copperhead Convention, the men who composed and controlled it. 
i. Base Surrender of I he Copperheads to the Rebels in Arms. 

5. The Military and Naval Situation, and the Glorious Achievements of our Soldiers and Sailors. 
C. A Few Plain Words with the Private Soldier. 

7. What Lincoln's Administration has done. 

8. The History of McClellan's " Arbitrary Arrest" of the Maryland Legislature. _ * 

9. Can the Country Pay the Expenses of the Warf , * j 

10. Doctrines of the Copperheads North Identical with those of the Rebels South. 

11. The Constitution Upheld and Maintained. 

12. Rebel Terms of Peace. 

13. Peace, to be Enduring, must be Conquered. 

14. A History of the Cruelties and Atrocities of the Rebellion. 
16. Evidences of a Copperhead Conspiracy in the Northwest. 

The above documents will bo printed in English and German in eight or sixteen page pamphlets, and sent, 
postage free, according to directions, at the rate of one or two dollars per hundred copies. The plana and pur- 
poses of the Copperheads having been disclosed by the aeli.m of the Chicago Convention, they should at once bo 
laid Before the loyal people of tlie cnuntry. There is but two mouths between this and elation, ami leagues, 
clubs, and individuals should lose no time in sending in their orders. Remittances should be made iivgi eeubucka 
w Drafts on New York City, payable to the order of James Ilarhm. 

Address: Free. Hon. JAMES HARLAN, Washington, D. C. 

Very respectfully, yours, Ac, D. H. COOLEY, Secretary. 



PRINTED AND STEREOTYPED BY McGILL & WITUEROW, WASHINGTON, D. a 



REPLY OF 

MAJ. GEN. SHERMAN 

TO THE MAYOR OF ATLANTA, 



AND SPEECHES OF 



MAJ. GEN. HOOKER, 

Delivered in the Cities of Brooklyn and New York, Sept. 22, 1864. 



LETTEK OE 



LIEUT. GEN. GRANT. 



ANSWER OF GENERAL SHERMAN. 

Headqr's Mil. Div. of the Mississippi^ 

In the Field, Atlanta, Sept. 12, 1864. 

James M. Calhoun, Jfayor, E. E. Rawson and S. C. Wells, 
representing Vity Council of Atlanta : 

Gentlemen : I have your letter of the 11th, in the nature 
of a petition to revoke my orders removing all the inhabi- 
tants from Atlanta. I have read it carefully, and give full 
credit to your statetments of the distress that will be occa- 
sioned by it, and yet shall not revoke my order, simply be- 
cause my orders are not designed to meet the humanities of 
the case^ but to prepare for the future struggles in which mil- 
lions, yea hundreds of millions of good people outside of At- 
lanta have a d,eep interest. We must have peace, not only 
in Atlanta, but in all America. To secure this we must stop 
the war that now desolates our once happy and favored coun- 
try. To stop war we must defeat the rebel armies that are 
arrayed against the laws and Constitution which all must re- 
spect and obey. To defeat these armies we must prepare the 
way to reach them in their recesses, provided with the arms 
and instruments which enable us to accomplish our purpose. 



2 ->.# . 2.2. 

Now, I know the vindictive nature of our enemy, and that 
we may have many years of military operations from this 
quarter, and, therefore, deem it wise and prudent to prepare 
in time. The use of Atlanta for warlike purposes is inconsis- 
tent with its character as a home for families. There will be 
no manufactures, commerce, or agriculture here for the main- 
tenance of families, and, sooner or later, want will compel the 
inhabitants to go. Why not go now, when all the arrange- 
ments are completed for the transfer, instead of waiting till 
the plunging shot of contending armies will renew the scenes 
of the past month ? Of course I do not apprehend any such 
thing at this moment, but you do not suppose this army will 
be here till the war is over. I cannot discuss this subject 
with you fairly, because I cannot impart to you what I pro- 
pose to do ; but I assert that my military plans make it neces- 
sary for the inhabitants to go away, and I can only renew my 
offer of services to make their exodus in any direction as 
easy and comfortable as possible. You cannot qualify war in 
harsher terms than I will. 

War is cruelty, and you cannot refine it ; and those who 
brought war on our country deserve all the curses and male- 
dictions a people can pour out. I know I had no hand in 
making this war, and I know that I will make more sacrifices 
than any of you to-day to secure peace. But you cannot have 
peace and a division of our country. If the United States 
submits to a division now, it will not stop, but will go on till 
we reap the fate of Mexico, which is eternal war. The Uni- 
ted States does and must assert its authority wherever it has 
power ; if it relaxes one bit to pressure it is gone, and I know 
that such is not the national feeling. This feeling assumes 
various shapes, but always comes back to that of Union. Once 
admit the Union, once acknowledge the authority of the Na- 
tional Government, and instead of devoting your houses and 
streets and roads to the dread uses of war, I and this army 
become at once your protectors and supporters, shielding you 
from danger, let it come from what quarter it may. I know 
that a few individuals cannot resist a torrent of error and 
passion such as swept the South into rebellion ; but you can 
point out, so that we may know those who desire a govern- 
ment, and those who insist on war and its desolation. 

You might as well appeal against the thunder-storm as 
against the terrible hardships of war. They are inevitable, 
and the only way the people of Atlanta can hope once more 
to live in peace and quiet at home is to stop this war, which 
can alone be done by admitting that it began in error and is 
perpetuated in pride. We don't want your negroes, or your 
horses, or your houses> or your land, or anything you have ; 
but we do want and will have a just obedience to the laws of 



the United States. That we will have, and if it involves the 
destruction of your improvements, we cannot help it. You 
have heretofore read public sentiment in your newspapers, 
that live by falsehood and excitement, and the quicker you 
seek for truth in other quarters the better for you. 

I repeat, then, that, by the original compact of government, 
the United States had certain rights in Georgia which have 
never been relinquished, and never will be ; thac the South 
began the war by seizing forts, arsenals, mints, custom-houses, 
&c, long before Mr. Lincoln was installed, and before the 
South had one jot or tittle of provocation. I, myself, have 
seen in Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Mississippi, hun- 
dreds and thousands of women and children fleeing from your 
armies and desperadoes, hungry, and with bleeding feet. In 
Memphis, Vicksburg, and Mississippi, we fed thousands upon 
thousands of the families of rebel soldiers left on our hands, 
and whom we could not see starve. Now that war comes 
home to you, you feel very different — you deprecate its hor- 
rors, but did not feel them when you sent car-loads of soldiers 
and ammunition, and moulded shells and shot, to carry war 
into Kentucky and Tennessee, and desolate the homes of hun- 
dreds and thousands of good people, who only asked to live 
in peace at their old homes, and under the Government of 
their inheritance. But these comparisons are idle. I want 
peace, and believe it only can be reached through Union and • 
war, and I will ever conduct war purely with a view to per- 
fect and early success. 

But, my dear sirs, when that peace does come, y^u may call | 
on me for anything. Then will I share with you the last 
cracker, and watch with you to shield your homes and fami- 
lies against danger from every quarter. Now, you must go, 
and take with you the old and feeble ; feed and nurse them, x 
and build for them in more quiet places proper habitations to 
shield them against the weather until the mad passions of men 
cool down, and allow the Union and peace once more to set- 
tle on your old homes at Atlanta. 
Yours, in haste, 

W. T. SHERMAN, 

Major General. 



SPEECHES 



MAJ. GEN. HOOKER 



BROOKLY AND NEW YORK. 



GKEAT UNION MEETING IN BROOKLYN. 

The Brooklyn Academy ot Music was overcrowded on 
Thursday night last by a highly intelligent audience, com- 
prising a large proportion of ladies, assembled to assist the 
Union cause and do honor to Major General Hooker. Meet- 
ings were held outside the Academy. The stands were illu- 
minated. Inside the Academy, R. M. Griswold presided. 
Stirring resolutions were adopted. They contrasted the 
principles of the Opposition with those of the Union party, 
and declared that there could be no hesitation by loyal men 
in choosing between the National and Secession candidates ; 
pledging the meeting against a humiliating and a foul and 
treacherous betrayal of the national cause. 

Senator Wilson made the first address, urging the duty of 
the people at this hour. While he was speaking the audience 
recognized General Hooker. Nearly all the persons present 
rose to their feet, cheering and waving hats and handkerchiefs; 
and the scene was of the most thrilling interest. The General 
bowed his acknowledgments, and in response to loud calls, 
made the following address : 

" Ladies and Gentlemen : I need not tell you that I am 
totally unprepared for this. I cannot, I do not take this de- 
monstration, or any part of it, to myself. I am not worthy of 
this reception. ["Yes, yes, you are ;" applause.] lam no 
more worthy than any of you. We are all in the same boat. 
You have been working in one place ; I have been working 
in another. [Applause.] Your victories are as dear to us 
in front as the victories in the front are dear to you. The 
political victories of last fall — I speak from full knowledge — ■ 
were hailed with as much joy and enthusiasm in the army as 
though they had been achieved by the army. [Applause.] 
The victory in Ohio last fall was so hailed and I hope we 



5 



may hail many more. I hope that we may have many more 
and do not doubt that next November we will have one of 
which this rebellion has furnished no parallel. 1 need not 
tell you that I am rejoiced to find such an assemblage here 
to-night. It shows it is ' all right ' with our cause and our 
country No reverse, no misfortune can befall us when our 
people are animated by the feeling which is evinced here to- 
night. If the war has been prolonged, it has not been trom 
oifr weakness, but it has been from our conscious strength. 
We have not put forward all our energies and all our resources, 
although we have employed resources that have amazed the 
world. ' But the North has not made one great effort to crush 
the rebellion by a single blow. It could do it, and it can do it 
any day it moves for that purpose. [Cheers.] The people in 
the loyal States— and I am glad to say it— the -people have 
been in advance of the authorities in all this rebellion. Let 
us °-o on until we reach the end, and the end is not remote. 
I am rejoiced to meet you,* and meet yon under such auspi- 
cious circumstances. Tidings— glorious tidings— reach us trom 
all of the armies. The work goes bravely on. There are no 
Copperheads in the army. [Great applause.] Ihe troops 
will fight well, and they w'ill vote well. More devotion, more 
loyalty never animated the hearts and the hands of men more 
brave". [Renewed applause.] I thank you most kindly lor 
the kindness you have received me with to-night. I am un- 
worthy of it. In my humble capacity I have never tailed 
to do my duty, and do not intend to fail now. I wish you 
all good-night." . 

There was long-continued cheers after the General retired. 

GENERAL HOOKER IN NEW YORK. 

General Hooker on the same night visited the Union League 
Club of New York, and was welcomed by a large number of 
members. Mr. Jonathan Sturges made the reception speech, 

as follows : 

"Gemtleman: This is not a partisan club, as many suppose, 
but a club whose declared object is to cultivate a love for our 
Union, and to sustain the Governmentin restoring its author- 
ity in those States which are in rebellion. We agree with 
General McClellan in his report, page 442, where he expresses 
the opinion : "After a calm, impatial, patient consideration ol 
the subject, that a necessary preliminary to the reestablish - 
ment of the Union is the entire defeat or virtual destruction 
of the organized military power of the Confederacy, and that 
such a result should be followed by conciliatory measures." 
Believing this, we cannot sustain any man who goes upon an 
'immediate armistice' platform, with such men as Mr. Pen- 



dleton, of Ohio. We feel it to be more consistent to do honor 
to those generals who 'propose to fight it out on this line if it 
takes all summer.' Several of these are with us to-night. I 
have tlie honor of introducing to the club that gallant soldier, 
Major General Joseph Hooker." 

General Hooker, in reply, observed that the Loyal League 
were not aware of the service they had rendered the army. 
They had formed a good reserve, and for this the army felt 
strong in front. The fighting is now nearly closed. There 
will be a few spasmodic plunges, but they are natural mani- 
festations of dying. The Government has been slow ; the 
people have been fast, and have led the Administration; but 
the latter has come along, and, on the whole, done tolerably 
well. It is absurd to suppose the soldiers can vote other than 
one way. They will vote as they have fought, to put down 
the rebellion. We have not only fought the rebellion, but 
England. She has furnished the rebels with all their arms 
and clothing, and for these she holds a mortgage on the whole 
South. I don't think she will undertake to foreclose it. 

General Hooker further remarked that he had at no time 
felt any doubt of the success of the war for the Union. There 
has been mistakes and mismanagement in its conduct, yet the 
Union arms had made steady progress, so that the close of 
each year had seen the erea of the rebellion narrowed and its 
relative power materially weakened. He confidently believ- 
ed that we were now near the end — nearer than most of us 
believed. But he would have no overtures made to the rebel 
chief ; at the proper time they would signify their readiness 
to give it up. The time to begin negotiating was when we 
had finished the fighting. 

It is folly to talk of it till we have whipped out our enemies 
and swept away the cause of the rebellion. The Constitution 
must be interpreted in accordance with the principles of hu- 
manity, nor can we have a permanent peace till we do so. 
We must not make a peace in such a way that another war 
will break out again within ten years. We have been gener- 
ous enough to our enemies — even to a fault — and they in- 
variably construed our lenity into weakness. 



LIEUT. GEN. GRANT'S LETTER. 



Headquarters of the Armies of the United States, \ 
City Point, Virginia, August 16, 1864. f 

Hon, E. B. Washburne : 

Dear Sir: I state to all citizens who visit me that all we 
want now to insure an early restoration of the Union is a de- 
termined unity of sentiment in the North. The rebels have 
now in their ranks their last man. The little boys and old 
men are guarding prisoners, guarding railroads and bridges, 
and forming a good part of their garrisons for intrenched posi- 
tions. A man lost by them cannot be replaced. They have 
robbed the cradle and the grave equally to get their present force. 
Besides what they lose in frequent skirmishes and battles, they 
are now losing from desertion and other causes at least one 
regiment per day. With this drain upon them the end is not 
far distant, if ive will only be true to ourselves. Their only 
hope now is in a divided North. This might give them rein- 
forcements from Tennessee, Kentucky, Maryland and Missouri, 
while it would weaken us. With the draft quietly enforced, 
the enemy would become despondent, and would make but 
little resistance. I have no doubt but the enemy are exceed- 
ingly anxious to hold out until after the Presidential election. 
They have many hopes from its effects. Thay hope a counter 
revolution. They hope the election of the peace candidate : 
in fact, like Mickawber, they hope for "something to turn up." 
Our peace friends, if they expect peace from separation, are 
much mistaken. It would be but the beginning of war, with 
thousands of Northern men joining the South, because of our 
disgrace in allowing separation. To have peace on any terms, 
the South would demand the restoration of their slaves al- 
ready freed. They would demand indemnity for losses sus- 
tained, and they would demand a treaty which would make the 
North slave hunters for the South. They would demand pay, 
or the restoration of every slave escaping to the North. 

Yours, truly, 

U. S. GRANT. 



PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN OF 1864. 

UNION CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEE. 



Hob. E. D. MORGAN, of New York. 
" JAS. HARLAN, of Iowa. 
" L M. MORRILL, of Maine. 
(Senate.) 



Hon. E. B. WASHBURNE, of Illinois. 
" R. B. VAN VALKENrJURG, N. Y. 
" J. A. GARFIELD, of Ohio. 
'• J. G. BLAINE, of Maine. 
(House of Representatives.) 
E. D. MORGAN, Chairman. JAS. HARLAN, Treasurer. D. N. COOLE.Y, Secy. 

Committee Rooms, Washington, D. C, Sept. 2, 1864. 
Dear Sir : The Union Congressional Committee, in addition to 
the documents already published, propose to issue immediately 
the following documents for distribution among the people. 

1. McClellan's Military Career Reviewed and Exposed. 

2. George H. Pendleton, his Disloyal Record and Antecedents. 

3. The Chicago Copperhead Convention, the men who composed 

and controlled it. 

4. Base surrender of the Copperheads to the Rebels in arms. 

5. The Military and Naval Situation, and the Glorious Achieve- 

ments of our Soldiers and Sailors. 

6. A Few Plain Words with the Private Soldier. 

7. What Lincoln's Administration has done. 

8. The History of McClellan's " Arbitrary Arrest " of the Mary- 

land Legislature. 

9. Can the Country Pay the Expenses of the War ? 

10. Doctrines of the Copperheads North identical with those of 

the Rebels South. 

11. The Constitution Upheld and Maintained. 

12. Rebel Terms of Peace. i 

13. Peace, to be Enduring, must be Conquered. 

14. A History of Cruelties and Atrocities ef the Rebellion. 

15. Evidences of a Copperhead Conspiracy in the Northwest. 

16. Seward's Auburn Speech. 

17. Schurz's Speech. 

18. Copperhead Votes in Congress. 

19. "Leave Pope to get out of his Scrape." 

20. Shall we have an Armistice? 

The above documents will be printed in English and German 
in eight or sixteen page pamphlets, and sent postage free, accord- 
ing to directions at the rate of one or two dollars per hundred 
copies. The plans and purposes of the Cepperheads having been 
disclosed by the action of the Chicago Convention, they should 
at once be laid before the loyal people of the country. There is 
but two months between this and the election, and leagues, clubs, 
and individuals should lose no time in sending in their orders. 
Remittances should be made in Greenbacks or drafts on New 
York City, payable to the order of James Harlan. 
Address — Free. 

Hon. JAMES HARLAN, 

Washington, D. C. 
Very respectfully yours, (fee, 

D. N. COOLEY, Secretary. 



1?&pv\\3HCJflr\ Congressional co^wH-le^ ^H3-\Sft^7 



PEACE, 

To be Enduring, must be Conquered. 



Can any man doubt the truth of the above heading who knows 
the past history of the country ? We think not. The men who 
began this war, and others of their spirit, now in their graves, for 
many years past have shown a persistent, an unfaltering purpose 
to rule the country or to ruin it. Nothing has been allowed to 
stand in the way of their passion for power and control. The 
history of the debates in Congress has shown the country but 
little else than pro-slavery truculency, bluster, and domineering 
on the one part, and meek submission or tame resistance on the 
other. Hectoring airs of assumed superiority, backed up by 
trenchant and scolding declamation, by threats, by challenges to 
mortal combat, by the display of bowie-knives and pistols, and by 
the occasional use of the bludgeon in the halls of the National 
Legislature, have given us a fair view of the prevailing type of 
Southern civilization, as well as abundant warning of what 
was coming. But the North was both blind and deaf. We tried 
to persuade ourselves that these manifestations had no depth of 
meaning — that they were personal to the parties committing the 
disorders, and not a genuine representation of the ruling Southern 
mind. 

We have found, however, that our charity controlled our judg- 
ment ; that the rage of slaveholding Congressmen was truly rep- 
resentative ; that the sense of their own superiority, and the pur- 
pose to rule, were genuine traits of the whole Southern aristocracy. 

Printed for ihe Union Congressional Committee by John A. Gray & Green, New-York. 



*0, "2-5 



South-Carolina, when she presented a cane to Bully Brooks, in 
honor of his brtual assault upon Senator Sumner, expressed well- 
nigh the universal sentiment of leading Southern men. No gen- 
uine Southern newspaper condemned it — nearly every one de- 
fended and gloried in it. Brooks and South-Carolina held the 
club, and inflicted the blows ; but the whole slaveocracy accepted 
the responsibility, and envied South-Carolina and Brooks their 
leadership. This was the temper of the slaveholding class as 
such. Their estimate of Southern blood and Southern prowess, 
and Southern gentility and refinement, allowed of no comparison 
between them and the North, and entitled them, in their own 
view, to regard us, with their own landless and slaveless class, as 
** mudsills," and to reduce us to order, if need be, at the mouth 
of the pistol or under the blow of the bludgeon. 

Now these are the people who have brought war upon the 
country. These are the parties from whom, and with whom, we 
are to secure peace. Is there any thing in the temper of their 
class, in the modesty of their conduct, in their peculiar recogni- 
tion of Northern rights, or the rights of labor anywhere, in their 
Congressional history, to induce the belief, in any sane mind, that 
they can ever be coaxed into terms ? Can any one who knows 
history believe in the cure of these men by " peace " nostrums, to 
be administered by such doctors as Seymour, Vallandigham, and 
the Woods ? "Will any thing short of a sound and thorough 
whipping produce political regeneration in such men as these ? 
We trow not. 

But let us look further in the same general direction. This 
proud, insurgent aristocracy is not a caste created by wealth, or 
by learning, or by legalized nobility. It rests upon a distinct 
system of labor, in which the capital owns the laborer, and in 
which the laborer's condition is so deeply degraded as to carry 
labor down to the abyss of the profoundest disgrace. The work- 
ing-man is a chattel ; his manhood is denied ; he has no lawful 
marriage, no control of his children, no right to learn his A, B, C ; 
he owns no property — not even his own body or his own soul. 
To so fold a thing, made nevertheless of God's image, is the des- 
tiny of labor bound. This treatment of men and of labor, besides 
making slaveholders proud braggarts, as we have seen, turns _ 
against them the instincts of humanity all over the world. It ar- 
rays in opposition to them the horny-handed sons of toil at home and 
abroad. It brings upon them the reprobation of true Christians, 



3 

and disinterested philanthropists everywhere. Now, the horror 
of all good men for slavery is the measure of rebel elevation to it. 
Shivery is rooted in the rebel heart, and taints the rebel blood ; it 
is rebel wealth and rebel pride ; it has made its supporters dicta- 
torial and fierce. When it was threatened, they were alarmed and 
maddened, and when, at the election of Mr. Lincoln, it was beaten 
at the ballot-box, they rushed to arms. 

Mr. Jefferson Davis may say they are not fighting for slavery. 
He litters a falsehood. There never was any thing else to fight 
about. Slavery made the South what it was before the war, and 
the rebel animus in every battle has been intense hate of abolition- 
ists. This hate of abolitionists is only the negative side of the 
love of slavery. The miser hates the man who carries off his in- 
gots precisely as much as he loves the ingots. His heart is with 
the lost treasure and his curse with its new possessor. But negroes 
to a rebel aristocrat are more than wealth ; they are aristocracy, 
they are caste. Without them, he is a cripple without his crutch, 
an unhorsed cavalryman, or rather is he the man-part of a centaur, 
cut loose from the animal to whose back he had grown fast. 
When the severance takes place between master and slave, the 
present structure of Southern society tumbles into ruins ; its pecu- 
liar civilization Gomes to an end ; the plough stands still in the 
furrow ; the cotton, and sugar, and rice, rot in the fields, and the 
border States lose their market for their crops of biped cattle. 

Following such results must come the hated system of free 
labor which has enriched the North. Slaves must become men, 
choosing their employment and employers ; laboring white men 
will be emancipated from the vile shackles of prejudice ; free 
schools must spring up, fostered and protected by a free press 
and a free pulpit, and the pride and arrogance of Southern 
knighthood and Southern chivalry must die the death. The 
nation will then become homogeneous, and patriotism take the 
place of sectionalism. 

Now is it possible to get a permanent peace until this tap-root 
of the rebellion, slavery, is destroyed ? If we stop fighting now, 
and leave slavery where it is, and the Southern people go to work 
to tinker up " the corner-stone " of their system, so scaled and 
split by the blasts of war, can we expect an enduring peace ? 
Will the bloodshed of the conflict have reconciled the two 
opposing systems of civilization ? Will our churches and schools 
cease to denounce slavery as " the sum of all villainies " ? Will 



Northern politicians cease to make it a party issue ? Will the 
anti-slavery presses accept the gag for the purpose of maintaining 
peace ? Will Southern statesmen, politicians, and preachers cease 
to resent Northern interference with their " institutions " ? Never. 
A peace that leaves slavery still in existence is hollow. It is 
healing the wound with the bullet still in it. It is deliberately 
setting the broken limb crooked, so as to insure the necessity of 
breaking it again. 

If, therefore, we would have an enduring peace, we must destroy 
slavery, root and branch. And now allow us to ask the reader 
whether or not a peace on the basis of the President's emancipa- 
tion policy, on the basis of human bondage dead and buried, can 
be secured in any other way than by conquest? Must not 
universal emancipation be conquei*ed ? Will the rebels give up 
slavery, and thus the whole struggle, until their military power is 
completely overthrown? We know they will not. We must 
crush the power of the foe by force of arms in order to remove 
the causes of future war. 

This view is fully confirmed by the course pursued by the pro- 
slavery party in the free States. Fernando Wood recently declared, 
in his place in Congress, that " the normal condition of the black 
man in this country is slavery." In this cry the smaller fry, with 
their weaker voices, heartily join. They want a peace which shall 
not be conquered. They would save the Southern idol, in order 
to propitiate and use their fellow-devotees. They would bring 
back the rebels with power as little diminished by their crimes 
as possible. They .would reestablish the old pro-slavery partner- 
ship between North and South, and yield their faces of dough 
once again to the old, familiar manipulation of Southern fingers ; 
all, of course, in hope of the spoils of office. 

These men of Chicago ought to understand the ultimate effect 
of their schemes. And we suppose they do, but they are willing 
to sacrifice the future and permanent peace of the country to their 
own present power. If they can patch up a peace at once, and 
save slavery, the only ligature which holds them and their rebel 
allies together, they will let the future take care of itself. Their 
feeling is : " Our allies must not be conquered, even if we should 
be obliged to fight them again." They would make a bad, a 
wicked peace now, and trust their skill to corrupt the public con- 
science so as to make the peace enduring. But they miscalcu- 
late ; the virtue and patriotism of the people are not the supple 



and plastic things they fancy. A wheedling peace, a peace of 
compromise with armed traitors, would speedily result in another 
war. It is not in the power of the Chicago Convention, united 
with the whole Copperhead faction, permanently to corrupt, or for 
any great length of time to hoodwink, the American people. 

If we now, in conclusion, look at the history of the rebellion it- 
self, our argument for a conquered peace will find its most direct 
and powerful confirmation. Have the rebels fought any of their 
battles in a spirit of compromise ? Have they conscripted their 
population ? Have they fed our prisoners ? Have they applied 
to foreign courts for recognition ? Have they pillaged and burned 
our commerce at sea ? Have they treated our colored troops in a 
manner to indicate the possibility of peace this side of complete 
conquest ? Let the whole male population of the South, from 
beardless boys to trembling and hoary-headed grandfathers, forced 
into their army, answer. Let Belle Island, with its starvation, its 
out-door sleeping apartments, and its rows of frozen Union sol- 
diers, answer. Let Fort Pillow make reply, with its murdered 
colored soldiers, burnt and chopped up in cold blood. 

No, no ; the rebels have burned every bridge in their rear. 
They intended to leave, and have left, no open door of retreat. 
They have staked their all upon the sword, and no man in au- 
thority among them has ever uttered one word or syllable, or 
made even a gesture, that tinted at peace, except on the ground 
of Southern independence. They assert over and over again the 
impossibility of living under one Government. They must be 
free, they tell us, or not be at all ; and we have no path left open 
to us but to subdue them. Brought back, conquered, they may 
be obedient, but returning unsubdued they would keep the coun- 
try in perpetual turmoil. "We can only, therefore, follow the 
example of Algernon Sidney, and " pursue gentle peace with the 
sword." 

We now ask our reader to go back a single moment and ponder 
our argument. We have shown, in the first place, that the char- 
acter of slave civilization is such that even before the war it could 
brook no opposition, no freedom except for itself; that our Con- 
gressional history, for the last twenty years, has been marked by 
pro-slavery truculency, bullying, blustering, and bragging, by the 
use of bludgeons, pistols, aud bowie-knives ; that this was not excep- 
tional or confined to a few, but was accepted, defended, and even 
complimented by the many, both in and out of Congress ; the 



6 

pulpit did not reprove it, and the press magnified it ; and finally, 
that the men who controlled Southern opinion had come to the 
conclusion that their right of domination over the country was 
innate. From chastising us with whips, they proceeded to scor- 
pions, waxing daily madder and madder, until their chronic sense 
of dignity and masterhood broke out into open violence against 
the Union. Now, will it be possible again to live in peace with 
such people until they are conquered — until the inordinate conceit 
is taken out of them ? We believe not. 

We have further seen that slavery, the bone of contention in the 
present strife, is the foundation, the life, the soul of Southern so- 
ciety ; that so long as it lives, the real and only cause of war con- 
tinues ; that if we heal over our troubles with this element still 
extant, we have only an apparent, and hence only a temporary, 
peace ; that, therefore, slavery must perish, if peace, when it comes, 
is to last ; and that such is the hold of slavery on the Southern 
mind, that we must absolutely cut our way with the sword through 
all the military power of the enemy, before we can reach and de- 
molish the inner sanctuary in which slavery is worshipped. The 
last thing the South will give up is slayery. They will yield it 
only when they must — when the weapons of war are wrenched 
from their clutch — and not before. 

We have also shown that the so-called peace party, the pro- 
Southern, pro-slavery party, of the North, are working in harmony 
with the Southern rebels ; that if, by giving countenance and hope 
to traitors, they make them more difficult to conquer, they also 
make their conquest the more necessary. For if Northern peace- 
men dictate the settlement with rebellion, the spirit that fired on 
Sumter will still survive, and must soon repeat the horrors of 
war. 

We have shown, finally, that the war now raging has been con- 
ducted on the rebel side in a manner to show that compromise is 
impossible; that Jeff Davis himself, with all his satellites in the 
Southern aristocracy, prefers extermination to the Union in the 
best shape in which it could be restored. If the Union comes, 
therefore, it comes by the sword ; its terms must be dictated by 
our victorious armies. Whatever McClellan may have done while 
in command of the army, however " easy" he may have " touched 
off" his guns, however gently he may have waved his peaceful 
sword, the rebels have indulged in no such shams ; they have tried 
to strike home to the heart of the nation at every blow. Nor 



have they, at any period of their terrible struggle for independence, 
ever shown the slighest wavering in their purpose — the slightest 
sign that they would settle for " half a loaf." Their whole course 
says : " The whole or none." It says to Chicago : " We thank 
you for fighting our battles, but you are fools for your pains. 
Whip your Government for us, or help us to do it, and then let us 
alone." No, there is no hope of patching up a peace ; and if there 
were, it would only be " putting new cloth into the old garment 
and making the rent worse." We must fight till " the last armed 
foe expires," we must whip the rebels, even if we have to fight their 
Northern allies into the bargain. Once conquered, they will be 
easy to settle with ; until then, any settlement must be disgraceful, 
ruinous, and temporary. 



PBESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN OF 1864. 

UNION CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEE. 



Hon. E. D. MORGAN", of New-York. 
" JAS. HARLAN, of Iowa. 
" L. M. MORRILL, of Maine. 

(Senate.) 



Hon. E. B. WASHBURNE, of Illinois. 
" R; B. VAN VALKENBURG, N. Y. 
" J. A. GARFIELD, of Ohio. 
H J. G. BLAINE, of Maine. 
(House of Representatives.) 
E. D. MORGAN, Chairman. JAS. HARLAN, Treas. D. N. COOLEY, See. 

Committee Rooms, Washington, D. C, Sept. 2, 1864. 
Dear Sir : The Union Congressional Committee, in addition to the documents 
already published, propose to issue immediately the following documents for dis- 
tribution among the people : 

1. McClellan's Military Career Reviewed and Exposed. 

2. George H. Pendleton, his Disloyal Record and Antecedents. 

3. The Chicago Copperhead Convention, the Men who Composed and 

Controlled it. 

4. Base Surrender of the Copperheads to the Rebels in Arms. 

5. The Military and Naval Situation and the Glorious Achievements of 

our Soldiers and Sailors. 

6. A Few Plain Words with the Private Soldier. 

7. What Lincoln's Administration has done. 

8. The History of McClellan's "Arbitrary Arrest" of the Maryland 

Legislature. 

9. Can the Country Pay the Expenses of the War ? 

10. Doctrines of the Copperheads North identical with those of the Rebels 

South. 

11. The Constitution Upheld and Maintained. 

12. Rebel Terms of Peace. 

13. Peace, to be Enduring, must be Conquered. 

14. A History of Cruelties and Atrocities of the Rebellion. 

15. Evidences of a Copperhead Conspiracy in the Northwest. 

16. Seward's Auburn Speech. 

17. Schurz's Speech. 

18. Copperhead Votes in Congress. 

19. " Leave Pope to get out of his Scrape." 

20. Shall we have an Armistice ? 

21. Barnard's Peninsula. 

22. Sherman, Hooker, and Grant. 

23. Peace, to be Enduring, must be Conquered. 

The above documents will be printed in English and German, in eight or sixteen 
page pamphlets, and sent postage free, according to directions, at the rate of one 
or two dollars per hundred copies. The plans and purposes of the Copperheads 
having been disclosed by the action of the Chicago Convention, they should at once 
be laid before the loyal people of the country. There are but two months between 
this and the election, and leagues, clubs, and individuals should lose no time in 
sending in their orders. 

Remittances should be made in Greenbacks or drafts on New-York City, payable 
to the order of James Harlan. Address, Free. 

HON. JAMES HARLAN, 

"Washington, D. C. 
Very respectfully, yours, etc., 

D. N. COOLEY 

Secretary. 



Lno 



:.' 



